Featured Ministry For millions of homeless kids, basic needs like a hearty meal, warm bed, and safe shelter are true luxuries. Instead of knowing the joys of childhood, every day these kids face the life-or-death dangers of living on the streets.  Since 1972, Covenant House has been leading the effort to help homeless kids. And today, we are the largest privately-funded agency in the Americas that provides food, shelter, immediate crisis care, and an array of other important services to homeless, throwaway, and runaway kids. Find out how you can partner with the Covenant House ministry today. More Current Articles in Christ & Culture: • Getting Marriage Right  by David P. Gushee (Baker Book House, 2004) • The Redemption of Love  by Carrie A. Miles (Brazos, 2006) • February is National Marriage Month 2009.  by • Nukes in the News by

The back page of the most recent newsletter from the Yale Graduate School Department of History was devoted to the life of my doctoral advisor, Jaroslav Pelikan (1923-2006). But, for me, it was not the long list of outstanding academic achievements that was most moving. Rather it was his final aphorism.

To be sure, Pelikan's academic success was stunning. He could read by age 2 and earned both an MDiv and a PhD by age 22. He published almost 40 books and was awarded 42 honorary degrees. He was named the Jefferson Lecturer in Humanities (the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished intellectual achievement). He was president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, chair of the board of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, and founding chair of the Council of Scholars at the Library of Congress. The list goes on and on. But that is not what amazed me.

The Yale History Department (both when I was there in the '60s and now) is a very secular place. But in their tribute to this distinguished Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, they noted that toward the end of his long battle with cancer Pelikan provided the last of his many striking aphorims: "If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen—nothing else matters."

Dying from cancer, Pelikan knew that if death ends human existence—if, as Bertrand Russell said, we die, rot, and disappear forever—then nothing else matters. No matter what fame we have achieved, all is finished. No amount of joy, success, honor for a few short decades matters much anymore. It is over and we disappear into nothingness.

But if at that moment of death, it is true that Christ is risen—and that we, too, shall be raised from the dead to live forever in the presence of the Risen Lord--then again, nothing else matters. Compared to life for all eternity with the Lord of the universe, even Dr. Pelikan's astounding academic achievements as perhaps the most brilliant living scholar of Christian history simply fade into insignificance.

Especially at Easter, Pelikan's aphorism provides perspective and hope. He certainly is not saying that life here on earth is unimportant. God created us as body/soul unities designed to revel in the goodness of creation. Christian scholarship is significant and worthy of our best efforts. But Pelikan reminds us that all of that goodness and success pales in comparison with eternal life. It is better, Jesus said, to lose the whole world than to lose our relationship with the living God.

Perhaps one sees that most clearly when facing death. But it is true for all of us, whether we have a month or five more decades to live. If Christ is risen, if the truth about reality is that we can accept Christ's offer to live with him forever, then nothing else matters as much as gladly accepting that invitation.

No matter what our age, we should rejoice in and live out that truth. We rightly work hard; shape scholarship, culture, and society to the best of our ability; and delight in the goodness of this material world for whatever years the Creator gives us. But we know that our short sojourn here is not all-important. It is just the beginning of life eternal.

As a result, neither success nor failure is all-important. We can let go of frantic grasping for success. We can accept temporary failure or even premature death. Because Christ is risen indeed.

When I read this astounding witness to the center of Christian faith in my Yale Graduate School newsletter, I felt like weeping for joy. Even in the most secular sectors of contemporary life, there is still a powerful witness to the truth of Easter.

Christ is risen. And nothing else matters as much as this glorious Gospel truth.

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead…When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:17-20, 54-57)

(This essay appeared as Ron Sider's column in the March/April 2008 issue of PRISM Magazine.)