*Gathering
(an asterisk * indicates that all who are able should please stand)
Opening Reading “Throned Upon the Awful Tree”
Call to Worship Based upon Joel 2:1-16
Leader: Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on the
holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land
tremple, for the day of the Lord is near.
Congregation: A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds
draws closer. We shall rend our hearts and not
our clothing. We shall return to the Lord our
God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to
anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Leader: Blow the trumpet in Zion! Gather congregation of
God!
All: We gather to witness what the Lord is about to
do.
Opening Prayer
Faithful and loving God, we come before you at the beginning of
these forty days and as we prepare to walk together on this Lenten
journey. We remember how Jesus fasted and prayed in the
wilderness. We remember how He steadfastly set His face towards
the cross, walking ever closer to our salvation. As we walk these
next forty days, we do so in humility, witnessing to Jesus Christ.
Prepare us anew, fix our eyes upon Jesus. Send us your Spirit, oh
Lord, so that we may be reminded of our sins and be comforted with
your grace. Help us to proclaim with confidence that our Lord Jesus
conquered over sin and death. Amen.
Hymn #85 “What Wondrous Love Is this”
Call to Confession
In the blazing light of your love, our failings are illuminated. Our
failure to do justice, our failure to love, our failure to follow, our
failure to serve, our failure to be the people you have created and
called us to be. Let us confess our sins together…
Prayer of Confession
Heavenly Father, we say so easily, “Thine is the kingdom, and the
power, and the glory.” We rush to the next item as though that
mantra was obvious or unimportant. We mouth your rule, oh God,
and then we settle back to our habitual ways. But now we present
ourselves to you this day. We are here, awake, alert, wanting our
rule to override our disorder; hoping for your power to check our
own power, trusting in your glory that will drive our demons and
silence our idols. Yours is indeed the kingdom, the power, and the
glory. We submit, as did Christ, to God’s good rule. Come soon,
come here, with your lively way through our numbness. In the name
of Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
We cling to this one hope, this blessed assurance, that our Lord and
Savior died to forgive our sins. We lay all our failures and
shortcomings at the foot of the cross, trusting with all our heart that
Jesus has done something about them. In His name, we are forgiven.
Choral Anthem “Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley”
Opening Meditation Upon Readings
As we enter these forty days of Lent and move ever towards the cross,
we remember the meaning that the cross holds for those who lived
underneath its shadow. We remember that the cross signifies painful
truths about human experience: sin and death. Jesus was crucified
upon a slab of wood by the very hands of those He was dying to save.
In the light of Black History Month, we remember the suffering of so
many victims, strung up upon trees, that even in their final hours,
clung to this present hope that our Savior, Jesus Christ, also crucified
upon an awful tree, trampled sin and death under His feet and so has
redeemed the world of its pain and suffering. We will hear four
readings tonight. First, we will hear an account of Jesus’ crucifixion
from the Book of Luke. Next, we will hear an account from James
Cone---a black theologian, minister, and civil rights activist---who will
speak to us about the connection between the Holy Cross and the
lynching tree. Then, we will hear some brief historical accounts of
lynchings themselves. And finally, we will hear an excerpt from a
eulogy by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which so perfectly captures the
hope we cling to with the knowledge that Jesus Christ has the final
victory over sin and death.
First Reading Luke 23:36-43
Second Reading Excerpt “The Cross and the Lynching Tree”
Rev. Dr. James H. Cone
Third Reading Some Brief Historical Accounts of Lynchings
In 1889, in Aberdeen, Mississippi, Keith Bowen allegedly tried to
enter a room where three white women were sitting; though no
further allegation was made against him, Mr. Bowen was lynched by
the “entire (white) neighborhood” for his “offense.”144
William Brooks was lynched in 1894 in Palestine, Arkansas, after he
asked his white employer for permission to marry the man’s
daughter.145
General Lee, a black man, was lynched by a white mob in 1904 for
merely knocking on the door of a white woman’s house in
Reevesville, South Carolina.146
In 1912, Thomas Miles was lynched for allegedly writing letters to a
white woman inviting her to have a cold drink with him.147
In 1940, Jesse Thornton was lynched in Luverne, Alabama, for
referring to a white police officer by his name without the title of
“mister.”150
In 1918, Private Charles Lewis was lynched in Hickman, Kentucky,
after he refused to empty his pockets while wearing his Army
uniform.151
Richard Wilkerson was lynched in Manchester, Tennessee, in 1934
for allegedly slapping a white man who had assaulted a black
woman at an African American dance.
White men lynched Jeff Brown in 1916 in Cedarbluff, Mississippi, for
accidentally bumping into a white girl as he ran to catch a train.153
In 1917, Sam Gates was lynched for the offense of “annoying white
girls” in England, Arkansas.
In 1927, Owen Flemming refused to follow an overseer’s command
to retrieve mules out of a flooded district in Mellwood, Arkansas.
The overseer pulled a gun, which Mr. Flemming wrestled away from
him and fired in self-defense. A mob pursued and quickly caught
him. Alerted of Mr. Flemming’s offense, the local sheriff told the
mob, “I’m busy, just go ahead and lynch him.”182 They did.
In Omaha, Nebraska, in October 1891, thousands of white people
gathered to seize George Smith, a black man, from the local jail after
he was accused of assault. Though he had an alibi and most reports
of the alleged crime were false, the mob beat Mr. Smith, dragged
him through the streets with a rope around his neck, and then
hanged him from telephone wires in front of a local opera house.
Despite the severe physical injuries inflicted, the coroner concluded
that Mr. Smith had died of “fright.” As a result, seven white men,
including the local police captain, who were arrested for
coordinating the lynching were never prosecuted.
 The Imposition of Ashes
Fourth Reading Excerpt “Eulogy for the Martyred Children”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Closing Hymn #95 “He Never Said a Mumbling Word
It is almost impossible to say anything that can console you at this
difficult hour and remove the deep clouds of disappointment which Benediction
are floating in your mental skies. But I hope you can find a little Please exit in reflective silence
consolation from the universality of this experience. Death comes to
every individual. There is an amazing democracy about death. It is
not aristocracy for some of the people, but a democracy for all of
the people. Kings die and beggars die; rich men and poor men die;
old people die and young people die. Death comes to the innocent
and it comes to the guilty. Death is the irreducible common
denominator of all men.
I hope you can find some consolation from Christianity's affirmation
that death is not the end. Death is not a period that ends the great
sentence of life, but a comma that punctuates it to more lofty
significance. Death is not a blind alley that leads the human race
into a state of nothingness, but an open door which leads man into
life eternal. Let this daring faith, this great invincible surmise, be
your sustaining power during these trying days.
Now I say to you in conclusion, life is hard, at times as hard as
crucible steel. It has its bleak and difficult moments. Like the ever-
flowing waters of the river, life has its moments of drought and its
moments of flood. (Yeah, Yes) Like the ever-changing cycle of the
seasons, life has the soothing warmth of its summers and the
piercing chill of its winters. (Yeah) And if one will hold on, he will
discover that God walks with him (Yeah, Well), and that God is able
(Yeah, Yes) to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of
hope, and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of
inner peace.
And so today, you do not walk alone. I paraphrase the words of
Shakespeare: (Yeah, Well): Good night, sweet princesses. Good
night, those who symbolize a new day. (Yeah, Yes) And may the
flight of angels (That’s right) take thee to thy eternal rest. God bless
you.