SHOULD THESE BONES LIVE? Final EZEKIEL 37 OVER FOUR MILLION DEAD FROM SLAVERY ANOTHER FOUR MILLION DEAD FROM A VOYAAGE KNOWN AS THE MIDDLE PASSAGE CAN THESE BONES LIVE?, 6 MILLION DEAD IN NAZI GERMANY CAN THESE BONES LIVE? CAN THESE BONES LIVE FIFTY DEAD FLORIDA NIGHT CLUB : NINE KILLED WHILE IN BIBLE STUDY AT EMANUEL AME CHURCH CAN THESE BONES LIVE? A young woman Heather Heyer’s dead Charlotteeville Virginia /Can her bones live? Thirteen Dead in Barcelona terrorist attack These events in history are painful, they remind us of days when were not so good as a Nation, a people, conjure up memories many of us would much rather forget. It is the past, let’s leave it there, there are some who would like to think that the holocaust and the middle passage is a figment of our imagination, For some of us the memories are all too real, too painful, scars too deep, it reminds us of events in our own personal lives that are painful. Yet Charlotteville VA showed us that there are bones scattered across this nation, screaming to be heard, moving, making noise, refusing to be silenced. YOU SEE NOT UNLIKE THE EVENTS ; EZEKIEL lived during a time of international upheaval. The Northern Kingdom had already fallen to the Assyrians and now Judah has fallen to Babylon under leadership of Nebuchadnezzar. Over 10,000.00 Jews including Ezekiel, were exiled to Babylon. Shortly thereafter the city of Jerusalem was burned and the temple. God’s dwelling place destroyed. Ezekiel was a priest in Jerusalem and now he was a priest with no temple. Yet while in exile he received his call to become a prophet and to minister to the exiles now separated from the temple of the Lord. For 22 years Ezekiel prophesied destruction, shame, he personally endures much, God uses Ezekiel’s body in symbolism to deliver God’s messages, he could not speak except when he had a direct word from the Lord; eat a sweet tasting leather scroll full of bitter words he placed a block of clay representing Jerusalem on himself and then an iron pan, and lie on his side bearing the sin of the people, he was to lie there for 390 days for Israel and then another 40 days on his right side for the sins of Judah; he could only eat a scant vegetarian diet cooked over human waste, and when Ezekiel protested at this God allowed him to use cow dung, he was to shave his head and beard, , he loses his wife and told not to mourn her, “the delight of his eyes”. Ezekiel was used by God in a most amazing and bizzar way, we must note that Ezekiel was not really a willing participant yet used by God as symbol of Israel and Judah’s sin but also their restoration and so we this morning we have just wondered into where The Hand of the Lord picked Ezekiel up and sat him down smack in the middle of what looks like a crime scene a valley of dry bones. God leads him around these bones, God makes sure he passes over them and through them, God wants him to see these bones, on every side from every angle. Ezekiel sees there very many bones lying in this valley and these bones were very dry, they had been there for quite some time. As Ezekiel survey these bones, as he attempts to takes in this crime scene of all these dead, scattered, dry bones. God Speaks. Son of Man can these bones live? Can dead bones live? Can dead bones live? Oh Lord God you know. I wonder, I just wonder if Ezekiel may have had a thought even a fleeting thought when God asked him can these bones live, I wonder if he may have for just one moment thought Oh Lord you know, but why? WHY SHOULD THESE BONES LIVE? I wonder if Ezekiel could have possibly been like some of us and recognize the atrocities, recognize the bones for what they are, they are the slain, they remind me that I am in exile, they remind me of why I am here, these bones forces me to recall the fall of my beautiful city, the destruction of the temple, These bones remind me of my shame and my sin against you of God, Can these bones live? Oh God You Know. Then Prophesy to these bones, and you say to the bones: hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am Lord. So Ezekiel did as he was commanded and as he prophesied suddenly there was a noise, a rattling and the bones came together, bone to its bone, and he looked and there were sinews on them and flesh had come upon them and the skin had covered them but there was no breath. God then tell Ezekiel to Prophesy to the breath, from the four winds oh breath and breathe upon these slain that they may breathe. And he prophesied as commanded and breath entered them and they lived and stood on their feet, as vast multitude. And then God speaks to Ezekiel and says to him that these bones are the houses of Israel. They say “Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost we are cut off completely. What do you do when God revives your bones, allow your bones to live again allow the wind to breath on you and you live again, but with that comes the realization that your bones are dry, and your hope is lost and you have been cut off. SHOULD THESE BONES LIVE? What happens when God calls the four winds to blow on you and awaken you but it also awakens the state of your condition? SHOULD THESE BONES LIVE What if the noise, the rattling of those bones were not just the gathering of the bones but a protest of bringing these bones back to life. SHOULD THESE BONES LIVE? We stood up like a army yes, but as we stood we stood but our bones were still all dried up, we stood but our hope was gone and we were cut off, GOD SHOULD THESE BONES HAVE LIVED? And today perhaps many of our bones are protesting, refusing to live again, PROTESTING, BECAUSE THEY COME ALIVE Lord then, we will be forced to acknowledge that 6 million dead at the hands of a crazed man; my bones are protesting because IF THEY COME ALIVE then I will be forced to remember my ancestors by the hands of your ancestors were packed in ships like sardines, lying in there own and others feces, and if mercy intervened they were thrown overboard the ship with no big fish to catch them. Maybe my bones are protesting this bone to bone live again thing God is doing because If my dry bones are brought alive I will forced to watch Travon Martin die because he was black and wore a hoody, I would be forced to watch Eric Garner killed by illegal choke hold, all the while crying he could not breath I will be forced to see and feel the brunt that in the wealthiest country in the world we have children going to bed hungry, a cafeteria worker fired for giving a free lunch to a hungry child, protesting because we will be forced to see 9 dead in our Emanual AME church at the hands of man full of hate for the color our skins; Maybe the noise is a protest, because we have to have live through 50 dead because of hatred for others lifestyle. Or because they protest will begin to feel again the pain of people who advocate pro-life but in the same breath advocate the end of food stamps and wic programs to feed the very children you want to survive a mothers womb. The death of love ones, the shame we had worn the shame we have discarded with the bones, the disappointment, the guilt. And maybe just maybe the real reason the rattling of the bone is a protest for the fear that I will be put back together bone to bone, that sinews would be on them, flesh had come me, skin had come my bones and breath from the four winds would have come upon me, I we will stand and we are so afraid that we will feel the full brunt of knowing that our bones are dried up my hope is lost, and I am completely cut off. I once counseled a woman who had attempted suicide and when she woke, she cried out in agony, not physical pain; not pain from having attempted suicide and what pain that caused her love ones, but the pain of living with dry bones. God asks Ezekiel “Can these bones live and for some us at some point may have asked, “Should these bones live” Should we revive the painful memories of our past, should they live? But God being God does not stop there, God then tells Ezekiel to prophesy, I am going to open up your graves and bring you up from your graves. God is no longer talking to unburied bones but he is talking to corpse in graves. Really God, not only do you want to bring to life the bones that the world has seen, now you want to go dig up the skeletons we have buried? The secrets no one knows, the shame I was able to bury in the grave, you really want to go and did that up too, Cant’ you just leave bone buried must you open my grave too But God says yes, I will bring you out of your grave, and yes some stuff might be exposed, BUT LISTEN WHAT GOD SAYS NEXT, “I will put my spirit within you and you shall live,” and then you will know that I am the Lord and that I have spoken and I have done it. Because we want to protect ourselves from pain we often try to bury what is uncomfortable, bury what is painful, but it is only through acknowledging the pain can we receiving healing. God wants us alive, not the waking dead; putting bone to bone can be painful. Living can be and often is painful, and if your bones become very dry because they have been lying in the valley in the sun far too long you may think it easier to stay there, leave the memories there, leaving the painful memories there, leave the emotions there. But when we allow God to bring our dry bones back to life, to awaken all our senses, so we feel pain yes, but we feel joy also, we remember the atrocities from the past, but we can now experience the hope of a future, our nostrils may still be sensitive to the smell of bodies decaying in the bottom of a ship or a Nazi gas chamber but we can now spell freshly cut grass, and appreciate the aroma of roses. Should these bones from the Holocaust Live? Yes! Should these bones from the Middle Passage and Slavery Live? Yes! Should the bones of those who died in Emanuel AME live yes; should the bones who died in Florida yes they should. They live when we tell the story . The bones of men and women who have died and who are dying from HIV; those bones of men, women, little boys and little girls being sold in human sex trafficking, the mentally ill men and women; those who live on the street, under the bridge, in the ally’s; in the valley; the disenfranchised, the working poor, the millions of children that go to bed hungry in this country, We must let them know that their bones may be very dry, we must be like Ezekiel willing to obey God be willing to go through the valley of the dry bones, be willing to hear the word of the Lord and to speak to the dry bones walking the streets of Atlanta, be willing to speak to the dry bones of those who carry the scars and wounds of their ancestors, and the humiliation of a government that refuses to just say I am sorry, We cannot let the painful memories of the past leave these bones in a heap in the valley. Can these bones live, God you know! Should these bones live God You Know, Men and women of God who have stepped out into this thing call ministry I believe we are called upon to tell those who have been hurt, and abused, who live on the margins of society, who live in the valley. Living can be painful, ask any of us in this room and they could probably tell you a story they would rather forget. But I believe that the same God that allowed Ezekiel envision and to participate in the enactment of God’s intention to restore Israel, to breathe life into the dry bones of Israel, to let Israel know that although you are in captivity and our bones are dry I will put my spirit in you and you shall live because you have a work to do. That same God is calling upon us to speak his life world of dry bones; bones so dry that we would put a racist sexist bigot in the White house;, bones so dry that the Ku Klux Klan celebrates this mans victory, bones so dry that for many making America Great again means a return to an all white society, the way it looked after they stole the Indians land. Can these dead bones live, Lord You Know!!! Then prophesy to these dead bones and tell them that the Lord God will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. God has called us all to do great things for him, whether we are in the pulpit or preaching on a street corner preaching, the class room preaching or our jobs or grocery stores God made those bones live as an act of mercy and grace, but also Israel had a job to do and they had not done it. Israel was to be the witness to the world of the true and living God. I WILL BRING YOUR DRY BONES BACK TO LIFE I , COLUMBIA Theological Seminary I will attach tendons to you, I will put flesh on you I will put skin on you, I will breath in you and I will put my spirit in you and you will live, because there is work to do. CAN THESE BONES LIVE LORD YOU KNOW SHOULD THESE BONES LIVE LORD YOU KNOW THESE MUST CAN LIVE; THESE BONES SHOULD LIVE; THESE MUST LIVE