Reading and discussing James Cones The Cross and the Lynching Tree through this

Lenten season has been life-changing for me. Growing up in a Black Christian
tradition similar to Cones, I have come to understand parts of my early religious
formation with new clarity and have even been able to reconcile some of the
theology that has always troubled me and led me on a path that has brought me
here to this time and place with you at Central Presbyterian.

In my youth I never understood why there was so much emphasis placed upon
Jesus crucifixion in my small rural African-American church. I grew to think that
perhaps this was just the theology of my denomination. And although many
Baptists also seemed to have a bizarre fascination with salvation gained through
Jesus suffering, as African-Americans this was central to our faith because it spoke
to the many sorrows we had experienced in our lives. Reading Cone made me see
that because of the atrocities of lynching, and many other heinous acts perpetrated
against my people, that the victory of Christs crucifixion was key to the faith of
those who were crucified all the day long.

Perhaps my biggest complaint in childhood was how much we sang about what I felt
was not the biggest part of Jesus life and ministry, as a young black boy benefiting
from centuries of struggle I had the privilege to want to focus on Jesus love and not
his saving grace upon the cross. It seemed that whenever we gathered at some
point in the worship of God we would sing what I grew to call bloody hymns. It was
not until I read Cones The Cross and the Lynching Tree alongside his seminal The
Spirituals and the Blues and began to see quotes of the hymns that Ive known it
seems since birth that I realized that when we gathered we sang of Christs
suffering because it eased our own!

I have shared these thoughts with my small group and it has shaped the music I
have chosen for our Lenten journey together. Much of the music may not have
been familiar and certainly not frequently occurring in this congregations worship.
Some may even argue that it is not a direct representation of the theology of
Central Presbyterian Church, but I do believe that it is closest way to get to the
heart what black Christians link between the cross and the lynching tree. I hope to
explain some of those here.

On the first Sunday of Lent both the prelude and postlude were settings of a hymn
that I remember being sung almost weekly, Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross.
Cone quotes or alludes to this hymn several times in his book reminding us that
black Christians see it as pivotal to constantly live near the cross watching, waiting
ever until we are victorious.

Each Sunday of Lent we have also used as a Call to Prayer the little known spiritual
Come Here Jesus if You Please. Traditionally we have sung the ancient Greek
text of the Kyrie eleison (lord have mercy). In searching for traditional negro
spirituals and African-American hymns to use in worship I came across this one that
is almost a direct translation of the Kyrie written in dialect. O Lord have mercy on
po me.

On the fourth Sunday of Lent the choir sang perhaps the most challenging spiritual
for many to understand and reconcile. Old Time Religion was perhaps the
culmination of my reconciliation with the faith of my ancestors and the faith I now
believe and live. James Cone made me understand and respect the religion of my
grandmother.

We have also been guided through lent by the spiritual, I Want Jesus to Walk with
Me. This spiritual that asks Christ to be our guide through trials, tribulations, and
all other sorrow is one of the earliest I ever learned. Black Christians sang this
frequently and with great reverence on Sunday morning. Believing that to make it
through the cruel world in which they lived Jesus Christ was the only companion
they could possibly have or need when their heads were bowed in sorrow.

We end Lent this morning with the liturgy of the passion and the spiritual closest to
my heart, Were You There