"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 with more than six dozen roses, almost as many carnations; daffodils, mums, other varieties -- 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. I felt like Birnam Wood going to Dunsinane, carrying them to the car. 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.

It's my guess that some of you listening to me speak hear me 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 book 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 entirely accurate, or 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 personal anecdote I've just told 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 makes 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. 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 story in each of the four gospels, but why not? The event is reported from different perspectives, by different people. But 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, a heavenly messenger appeared to them at the tomb; and finally, this good news was initially greeted with fearfulness or 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 sepulchre 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 what 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." 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 Magdelene'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, His 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.

They couldn't bring themselves to believe it at first. They were intrigued, but not convinced. Curious, but not persuaded. 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 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. No idle tale or memorial society could have changed their sorrow into joy. No first-century spin doctor could transform their denials and their distancing into exultation that spilled over, that was bursting to tell everyone the good news of Jesus Christ.

I'm glad that the Bible mentions the initial fear and unbelief of those people. 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. 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.

Carol Noren: I think that some people who get stuck at the crucifixion and don't move beyond that have not yet learned to receive all that God wants to give them. And the resurrection is a gift to each of us that can't be understood or analyzed or appropriated only when we make sense of it. It is grace, just as getting all those flowers was grace.

Talbot: When did that resurrection message first become real to you?

Noren: I think I always experienced the love of God as given to me and told me by my parents and growing up in the church, but several years ago a friend of mine was facing open heart surgery and I was very concerned about him, and in praying about it, I felt the spirit of God saying to me, "Don't you know how much I love him and that whatever happens he will never be out of my care?" That opened me to a new dimension of God's love that is made most visible and dramatic in the resurrection.

Talbot: Those moments of truth, you mean during those intense times of pain and suffering, can open up the mystery of divine Spirit?

Noren: Well, it sometimes happens during moments of suffering, but it doesn't have to. After all, that Sunday evening in Durham, North Carolina, I could not, by any stretch of the imagination say that I was suffering greatly. God's grace is for all times.

Talbot: Carol, you are Professor of Homiletics at North Park Theological Seminary. You're an acclaimed preacher throughout the country. Tell us what young people in seminary these days are thinking and doing about their faith and their call to faith.

Noren: One of the things that I like at North Park Theological Seminary is that there is a strong program for spiritual formation going alongside our study of classical discipline that ministers study as they're preparing to be ordained, so that we are nurturing the character of the person and the faith of the person, as well as equipping them with professional skills. And I have been impressed since I first came to North Park with the devotion to Jesus Christ that our students have.

Talbot: A kind of commitment. You're saying that, amidst all the pressures and demands of the secular culture, young people are expressing a kind of commitment.

Noren: Yes, they're expressing commitment. Sometimes I wish they would worry less about smooth performance, polished delivery, showing that they've done the right homework in the pulpit, and care more about the very real need to experience God's grace and power among their listeners.

One life-changing experience that I had early in ministry: The first three times I preached, somebody within the congregation dropped dead within 24 hours. And the family would say to me, "Yours was the last sermon he ever heard." It gave me a sense of what a life or death matter, how crucial it is that we communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ in each sermon. And whether the words are letter perfect is not as crucial as the God who empowers them and the God who gives them.

Talbot: Carol, you have been inspired along the way in your own personal call to ministry, and you've written so much about women in the pulpit. Was there one person who especially inspired you to go into this whole direction?

Noren: Well, my pastor as I was growing up, Norman C. Miller, encouraged me when I said I wanted to pursue a full-time Christian vocation. But it wasn't until I got to college, my college pastor took me aside and said, "Why don't you go into ordained ministry?" I didn't know that women could be ordained at that point, because I hadn't met any. But his encouragement and his letting me try my wings really helped to bring me to where I am today.

Talbot: Easter has been described as a springtime for the soul, Carol. Can you add on to that for us, as we conclude out visit?

Noren: I think it's called springtime for the soul because all around us we see signs of life in the greening of the earth again, and new life is what God gives us in Jesus Christ.

Talbot: Thanks so much for giving us that spirit and understanding of the Easter message.