going to church by walking through the churchyard

I've been pondering a sentence by N.T. Wright in his book, "Surprised by Hope." He said, "...there is something wonderful and profound about entering church through the churchyard, where are buried those who worshipped there in centuries past."

That is an experience which few of us in most of America can relate. If you Google "churchyard" you will come up with images like mine here in this blog. We know the look. We've seen "the churchyard" in movies, mostly Westerns and horror flicks. But, what would it be like to to to church by walking through the churchyard?

A few years ago my wife and I traveled to Wales with my sister and brother-in-law. We were fortunate enough to meet up with a distant relative in Wales and he took us around to some of the places where our family had lived, farmed, were baptized, married and buried. It was a wonderful visit and it was those churchyards that had for me a great "sense of place" to them.

Oh sure, the great cathedrals were wonderful. Famous kings and queens were buried right inside the walls and under the floors of the cathedrals. The stained glass windows, especially at Notre Dame were fabulous.

The cathedrals often were just tourist attractions, but these village churches, with real worshippers attending each week had a special attraction for me. My ancestors made their wedding vows there; promising to love, honor and cherish, till death do we part. In death they parted and left the loved one in the churchyard, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust.

They confessed their faith in those churches and chapels, they were baptized in those churches. As children they probably also played hide and seek behind those stones.

Each Sunday we walk across acres of concrete and asphalt. We hurry past hundreds of cars in parking lots and then enter spacious lobbies. We talk, we drink coffee, we sign up for missions trips. Along with these other good things I believe it would be encouraging and inspiring to us to walk past the graves of our saintly ancestors of old and remember their faithfulness. Maybe we wouldn't be so afraid of death if we walked through churchyards each week. Maybe we would have a greater sense of family if we had more churchyards in our lives. Maybe we would want to stay closer to the Lord and the church in life if we knew our bones would find their resting place in the churchyard at death. I think I'll try to find a place where I can attend church by entering through the churchyard so I can get a tiny taste of what that might be like.