An Empty Tomb

PROPERS:          2 EASTER, YEAR A    

TEXT:                JOHN 20:1-31

PREACHED AT ARDORAN HOUSE, IONA, ON SUNDAY, APRIL 16, 2023.

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The resurrection promised by that first Easter comes in various forms.

 

            In the year 563 AD, Columba and 12 friends crossed the Irish Sea to the Isle of Iona. That trip is the reason we are here today.

 

            A short time later, legend tells us, that Columba was seeking to build an abbey. Again and again, his plans were frustrated. The work accomplished each day would disappear overnight.

 

            A vision came that indicated the plans to build an abbey would be negated unless and until a live person was buried in the foundation.

 

            One of Columba’s 12 friends volunteered to be buried alive. So, Odran was buried alive under the proposed foundation. The abbey – a precursor to today’s abbey – was built, roughly on the same site as the one which stands today.

 

            Legend further holds that Odran later rose from that grave.  Once again, alive. He was quickly buried again.

 

            The early Christian monks which populated this island were Celtic. They practiced a form of Christianity that was at-odds with the Roman form which was sweeping across Europe and the British Isles.

 

            That tension was broken when the Synod of Whitby met on the coast of the North Sea in 664.  The date of Easter – and other church practices – were decided in favor of the Roman practice.

 

            Yet, the monks carried forth the Celtic tradition. The vitality of the abbey ebbed and flowed over the years.  But in 906, 68 monks of the abbey were martyred at the bay only a short distance from here.  A monument stands there now.

 

            Yet here we are – 1,200 years after their murder, and 1,600 years after Odran was buried. Thousands and thousands of pilgrims come here each year, seeking the experience of a “thin place.” Life continues.

 

            Too often, resurrection is seen only in the events of that first century Sunday in Jerusalem. It is, instead, a promise which transcends time and geography.

 

            Iona – and us – experience new life each day.  Despite our losses, disappointments, and failures, we find new life.  We emerge, again and again, from a metaphorical grave.

 

            Such resurrections are not cheap and facile. I came across a comment from a friend who experienced unspeakable loss a few years ago. I reflected on my theology of resurrection and what it could say to my friend. I could see that my friend would say such a theology is simplistic and superficial.

 

            But I thought: Life goes on… not as it was; not as simple; but it continues.  The Martyrs died… Odran died… but the ministry of Iona continues. Yes, we have lost loved ones.  Yes, we have seen relationships fail.  Yes, we have experienced illness and disappointment.

 

            On some level, though, life continues.  The tomb is empty.