GRAVEYARDS OR GARDENS?

A common sight when visiting churches in the UK is the presence of graveyards that surround the parish churches. There’s nothing really strange or unusual about this. Churches are places where people have gathered together as communities of believers throughout their lives, and in many cases they include generations of believers who have lived in the parish for centuries.

It’s no wonder, then, that people might find their final repose in the same places.
It gives new meaning to the scripture in Hebrews that begins, “since we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses . . .” It is a testimony to the fact that in death, as in life, we are all bound together with one another.

Visiting such places like the Church of St. Mary’s on Holy Island (Lindisfarne), teaches us a lot about the nature of being a Christian. Each grave has a story, a story much longer than a single gravestone could express. But the mere fact that they are actually there, surrounding the parish church which was the center of their lives while they were living, tells us how powerful a force the gospel can be in a believer’s life. As Paul writes in Romans, “None of us lives to himself, and none of dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

At home in Selden, our church, like most other Lutheran churches, is not surrounded by the graves of saints. Rather, it is surrounded by an equally powerful symbol that conveys a valuable lesson about who we are as a company of believers.

Hope is surrounded by gardens. There are beautiful flowers planted by “anonymous saints” who care about the message we have to proclaim to our members and the larger community. They want people to experience some of the beauty of God in the place where the saints gather together.

It’s true, of course, that there are seasons when the flowers are gone and the beauty seems to disappear completely. Even the waterfall and the pond we have sometimes freeze up when the winter temperatures are too cold.

But then again, the ice doesn’t last forever. When spring arrives, the trees revive and the flowers return, often more robustly than the year before. That too is a sign from God, like the graves in the graveyards, and it tells us that death does not and will not prevail over us. From beginning to end our lives are in God’s hands.

Graveyards and gardens, both tell a story, especially when they surround the places where God’s people gather. We should not take either of them for granted.

To be honest, however, I must admit that I like gardens better.