Easter Sunrise Service
“50 CENTS WORTH”

Luke 24:1-12

50 CENTS WORTH

The Rev. Carol Noren tells about an experience she had one day many, many April’s ago:

It was a cold, rainy Sunday evening: the kind of night that would depress anyone. The bad weather had ruined people’s plans for the weekend, and another week of work would begin the next morning.

I was living hundreds of miles away from family and friends. My budget wouldn’t allow too many long-distance calls, and there wasn’t anything good on TV.

So, I decided to go to the supermarket to pick up a half gallon of milk and maybe buy a single, long-stemmed rose to brighten the apartment and my mood.

Sunday night was the best time to do this; that’s when the produce manager would remove any flowers past their prime from the refrigerator case and place them in a bucket of water on the counter, and mark them down to just 25 cents each.

I worked my way carefully through that bucket that night, hoping to find the best one of the lot. The department manager saw me, and hurrying over to the counter she asked, “are you going to buy some flowers?”

When I said yes, she continued, “How many do you plan to buy?”

On impulse -- maybe to assure her and myself that I was a serious customer -- I said, “two”, even though that was double what I’d intended to spend.

“That’d be fifty cents, wouldn’t it?” she said as she looked around. “I tell you what: how would you like all the flowers for fifty cents?”

“You’re kidding.”

“No, I’m not. We’re getting a big shipment of fresh flowers tomorrow morning, and I have to throw away anything here that isn’t sold by midnight. If you take ‘em, it’ll save me a trip to the dumpster. Fifty cents; what do you say?”

I didn’t know what to say. I left that store that night with more than six dozen roses, almost as many carnations; daffodils, mums, other varieties – and not just what was in the close-out bucket, but in a half-dozen other pails hidden beneath the counter: blossoms that looked far too fresh and beautiful to be clearance priced.

When I got home, I had flowers in every room. I brought a bouquet to the elderly couple next door, shared them with co-workers the following day; I dried some to make potpourri ... AND I was bursting to tell everybody of my extraordinary experience.

I went out to buy one rose to cheer myself up. I returned with more flowers than I could count. The best I could hope was that there would still be at least one halfway-decent flower in the sale bucket.

If anyone had told me what might happen at the grocery store, it would have seemed to me “an idle tale,” to borrow a phrase from Scripture. Too good to be true. But it wasn’t!

It’s my guess that some of you listening to Carol’s story hear it the way many are prone to listen to stories from the Bible about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There may be a measure of interest, a character who reminds you of someone you know -- but it’s not your story.

Perhaps what the Bible says did happen to somebody, sometime in the past, in a part of the world you’ve never seen.

And then again, maybe the storyteller is exaggerating, not being entirely accurate, or possibly presenting great ideas in symbols rather than describing real, historical events.

Or there’s a logical explanation for what sounds too good to be true.

But there’s an important difference between the resurrection narratives and the anecdote I’ve just shared with you.

Believing or not believing that four bits once bought enough flowers for a wedding doesn’t matter much as you face the future. Whether or not you believe Christ rose from the dead, though, can make all the difference in the world.

Interest, but skepticism: that’s the way people have reacted to the Easter story since the very first time it was told.

For example, consider the 24th chapter of Luke’s gospel, this morning’s text.

When Mary Magdalene and Joanna and the other women told Jesus’ disciples what had happened to them at the empty tomb, it says in verse 12 that “it seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”

There are different versions of the resurrection story in each of the four gospels, but why not? The event is reported from different perspectives, by different people.

However, the accounts are consistent on several points: First, no human being saw the resurrection as it occurred. Jesus’ followers had seen him suffer and die. On the third day they saw him alive again. But no one watched him rise from the dead.

Next, women were the first to be told Christ was risen. Third, some type of heavenly messenger appeared to them at the tomb.

And finally, this Good News was initially greeted with fearfulness and in many cases doubt.  Nobody anticipated this story would turn out the way it did.

It was still dark when Mary Magdalene and her friends set out for the cemetery. “Early dawn,” before it was light enough for any of Pilate’s soldiers to see them and make them turn back. They went sadly, with no great expectations of what they’d find.

At most, these women hoped someone would roll away the stone for them, so they could enter the funeral chamber. The Lord they loved was dead.

They made their way to the tomb with spices and perfumed oil, to anoint the body for burial. It was one last courtesy they could do for Jesus. In times of sorrow, it often comforts us to feel we can do something, however small, to honor the memory of the one we mourn.

On her way to the tomb in the twilight, Mary might have thought to herself, “He’ll never speak to me again, but I’ll remember that kind voice forever.”

Or, “He’s gone, but each time I see loaves and fishes, or meet someone he healed, the memories will make him seem close.”

Or even, “The Master’s teaching and stories about His goodness will be passed on for generations.”

All those things may have crossed her mind. But she didn’t expect to see anything but a dead body at her destination.

Imagine how perplexed the women were when they discovered that the stone had been moved, and they found the tomb empty.

And then think how they must have felt when they turned around and messengers from heaven stood before them in dazzling brightness.

They fell over with shock and fear. Then the angels said, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember how He told you, while He was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

The women must have been babbling by the time they got back to Jerusalem to tell the others.

You know those TV commercials from Publisher’s Clearing House -- the ones with the prize patrol showing up at someone’s door? And how the winner laughs and shouts and jumps up and down and wants to hug the prize-giver?

Mary Magdalene’s joy was light-years beyond all that. She had won more than the restoration of someone she thought she’d lost (as wonderful as that restoration was).

No, Jesus’ winning over the powers of sin and death meant that the future would be entirely different. And she had to go and tell the Lord’s other disciples.

The disciples couldn’t bring themselves to believe it at first. They were intrigued, but not convinced. Curious, but not persuaded.  They needed something more.  It wasn’t until they recognized Christ standing in their midst that they realized He was risen indeed.

Jesus’ resurrection was not a reprieve, a temporary delay of the physical death that comes to every human being. It was the fulfillment of everything the Master had said and done.

Now they understood that when Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die,”

He was making a promise not just about Lazarus (a friend he had brought back to life only a few weeks before) or Himself, but a promise offered to all who call on His name.

And we can read in Scripture what a change that made in the disciples’ lives from that time forward.

Since it took time for the disciples to believe in the resurrection it will likely take time for us. Many of you may leave this Easter service with doubts.

It will not be uncommon to hear words like, “The resurrection of Jesus is a great story, but I’m not sure I believe it.”

Of course, no one can prove that the resurrection happened. Each of you has to choose to believe or not believe.

As for me, as long as people continue to love other people, I will believe.

As long as the story is retold and the life events of Jesus’ life are remembered, I will believe.

And, as long as others continue to give me assurance in difficult times as they have in the past, I will believe.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen that way for everyone. In a cemetery in Hanover, Germany, is a grave on which were placed huge slabs of granite and marble cemented together and fastened with heavy steel clasps.

The grave belonged to a woman who did not believe in the resurrection.

Strangely, she directed in her will that her grave be made secure so if there was a resurrection, it could not reach her. On the marker were inscribed the words, “This burial place must never be opened.”

In time, a tiny seed, covered over by the slabs of concrete, began to grow. Slowly it pushed its way through the soil and out from beneath them.

As the trunk enlarged, the great slabs were gradually shifted so that the steel clasps were wrenched from their sockets.

One tiny seed had become a tree that had pushed aside the stones.

Actually, I’m glad that the Bible mentions the initial fear and unbelief of the women and the disciples. It makes them seem human and real -- not so different from people now.

If the risen Christ transformed them, then the same is possible for us.

More than that, it’s good to be reminded that the power and love of God are not thwarted by shaky belief or low expectations.

The truth is your belief or unbelief will not change the reality of what happened 2000 years ago, but it might just change your life.

If I come to him, questions and all, Jesus Christ can take my 50 cents worth of faith and fill my arms with more life and beauty that I dare to imagine: so much that I have to share it with others.

He will do the same for you, because he loves you. This is incredible and wonderful and beyond our understanding -- but it’s no idle tale. It’s the Gospel truth. 

Thanks be to God.

AMEN.