The Bone Yard

 -a sermon for Lent 5-

 

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?”  ---Ezek. 37: 1-3

 

The prophet finds out that YES the bones can live; as does Martha and Mary and those gathered around the tomb of Lazarus; as does the disciples and those gathered together after Jesus’ resurrection.  YES these bones can live. So why is it that we are in a bone yard?

 

Bone yards are an old back-country slang for a burying ground or a cemetery. Bone yards, today, is a term applied more often to a storage space or an area containing a collection of obsolete items: the leftovers of a salvage yard or the unwanted and forgotten pieces at a scrap yard.

We live in a bone yard because we grow out of and on top of the bones of history and the bones of who has gone before us. We live in a bone yard because the bone yard fascinates us – it is part of life’s journey, in living we move to death, everything has an expiration date; everything wears out. Although we can’t quite grasp it we settle into the bone yard and get pulled into being leftover salvage, unwanted, or forgotten pieces – dry bones; it is easier to turn to death than dare to contemplate living resurrection.

Our lives are built on bone yards – literally – dig up any city and you will find old bones. The backyards with buried pets, the patches of parkland or along the ocean shore where ashes have been scattered. When St. David’s Presbyterian church by the old library in Halifax redeveloped their property, they found bones all along the foundation wall of the church… bones from paupers’ graves, bodies shifting through time from the library-once-burying-grounds down. In any city there are the bones of old buildings repurposed and found elsewhere, old foundations under newer construction. There are city streets under city streets. There are the neighbourhoods whose bones – the sense of community or lack there of, the ethics, the characteristics- grow marrow from generation to generation.

 

Most disturbing are real bones – the Bone yards on the grounds of residential schools, mass graves from atrocities of war, the rubble of 9/11; internment centres holding so-called illegals; processing sites detaining migrants; urban streets awash with death at the hand of homelessness/mental illness/drugs/violence.

Mortal can these bones live? YES ---Then why are we in the bone yard?

 

Friday was the commemoration date of the death of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Romero died March 24, 1980. He did not just die. He was martyred. Having finished the sermon in the chapel at a hospital serving cancer and terminally ill patients, he moved to stand in front of the altar; while presiding at communion he was purposefully struck with a bullet through the heart. Dead. A pile of bones on the floor.

 

Romero wrote: “A church that doesn’t provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed – what gospel is that?”

Certainly not a gospel that prophecies to a valley of dry bones.

 

The day before his death Archbihop Romero preached to Salvadoran Christian soldiers to be obedient to God’s higher order, to stop carrying out the government’s repression and violations of basic human rights. Romero spoke to dry bones – those who had succumbed to settling into death and feared living resurrection; no longer daring to hope that these bones might live. Romero was an outspoken critic of government corruption, military abuse, and oppression of the poor. Along with other priests, he was considered a traitor by those with power, money, and influence because of their bold stand for justice and defending the rights of the poor; believing that these bones can live.

 

Romero spoke: “I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me I will rise again in the people of El Salvador.”  YES these bones can live.

 

250,000 people attended Romero’s funeral, with gratitude and passion to continue the work of living for and raising up the poor, the leftover, the unwanted, the forgotten. The people, once dry bones now inspired, imbued with hope, and breathing God-justice stood on the bones of Romero and amidst the attempt to return the people to bones choose resurrection. The funeral crowd faced chaos in smoke bombs from government security forces and rifle shots from plain-clothed army sharpshooters. They stood resurrected, even the 30-50 who died that day, as Romero’s body was buried in a bone yard, the crypt below the church.

 

The world is full of bone yards. We are standing in a valley of dry bones. We can settle in and continue to dry in the bleaching heat of systemic racism, political rhetoric, growing poverty, fear mongering; or at the call of the prophet, we can come together bone-on-bone and be filled with the breath of God-justice. These bones can live – growing from the bone yard of our ancestors – passionate to continue sponsoring refugees and welcoming displaced persons; excited about the transformation of this building and community; determined to be life in the neighbourhood; fervent in sharing good news; ardent in distributing hope; resolved to be God’s grace and compassion; resolute in living out God’s abundance; being bold in prophesying to dry bones and agitating bone yards to rise to live as one body – where no one will be leftover, unwanted, or forgotten.

 

Romero preached: “Let us not tire of preaching love; it is the force that will overcome the world. Let us not tire of preaching love. Though we see that waves of violence succeed in drowning the fire of Christian love, love must win out; it is the only thing that can.”  YES these bones can live. YES these bones can live.

 O dry 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 I will cause flesh to come to you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord. – Ezek. 37: 4-5