“You see, a city may be one thing to one people, or a country may mean one thing to one people and altogether another thing to another people. When the white Europeans came to this country, embarked upon these shores, America to them was a land of promise, was a mountaintop of possibilities, was a mountaintop of adventure. But to the Negro, when he embarked upon these shores, America to him was a valley: a valley of slave huts, a valley of slavery and oppression, a valley of sorrows.” (Rev C. L. Franklin, sermon, mid 1950s)

Ezekiel 37:2-6

I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

Matthew 23:27-28

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

A valley of sorrows that became a valley of dry bones. Dry bones that no longer know to whom they belong. Dry bones scorched by the sun and dusted by time. Dry bones gnawed and gnarled. Dry bones that speak of a silent genocide. Hear the rattling, crackling, tattling of changes so long in coming! Dry bones connecting, shaking off dust. Sinews, muscles, and skin growing and covering what should always have been. Inhale meets death and exhale expunges it. Dusty, quiet throats come to life stating with certainty, “If one cannot breathe, we all cannot breathe!”

On the rim of the valley stand the Tombs washed white as ghosts with care and assumptions. Those living, breathing ones start moving up the valley wall seeking the sun, no longer just bones but living breathing flesh and blood with fire and passion. The Tombs filled with dead bones in need of sacred lives. Some will shake for fear as the resurrected ones come near. Some will breathe in the approaching life bathed in humility, accepting fallibility, and taking in mercy as well as embracing the flesh and blood with fire and passion.

God, may your Kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Amen.

-Dianne Morgan

Pastoral Resident