The Cross, the Lynching Tree and the Axe

A lament is an ancient form of prayer. Resembling a poem, it can be a powerful spiritual and literary tool to name harm and injustice.

Divine Maker of the Great Gardens,
Do you see the trees that have sprouted?
Or the Black bodies that lie underneath,
and the cheering crowd that watched like those at Calvary?

God of all creation, from the tundra to the forest,
From the coral reefs to the trees,
Maker of even the Christmas Tree—
Are you the creator of the lynching tree?

A tree whose roots were corrupted at the seed, and bears the strangest fruit.
A vile site of historic racial terror.
A place where violence haunts and claims victims today.

Water, Sunlight, Air. Drowning, Sundown, Asphyxiation.
A natural tree gives oxygen, drinks water, and reaches into the light.
The lynching tree suffocates, and grows in the dark.

A natural tree drops seeds to spread new life.
The lynching tree scatters seeds of systemic trauma,
feeding white supremacy and starving the future.

How did your divine vision create such a thing?
Or let humanity drift so far astray from holiness that racism runs rampant?

God, grab your shield and rise up.
Protect me!

God, be the Axe in our time of need.
The violence of the Cross has been redeemed,
Yet the lynching tree,
Every spring, grows new sprouts on the stump.

Chop down the oppressive tree, and let ruin come on all those who enact its wrath. 
Hack down its branches as you dig a pit and hide the net from evildoers.
Slash it, everywhere it sprouts,
and bring shame and dishonor to all who uphold its system.

Carve justice, healing, and reconciliation into new roots and shoots.
Make the path for all supremacists, klansmen, and oppressors dark and slippery.

God, Lift up your axe against the lynching trees.
Let me hear you say, “I will give you victory.”

We remember you as the Master Gardener.
Tend to our soil,
Remove the weeds that threaten our growth,
And make the soil fertile for new life again.

The Theology Behind the Lament

A lament is an ancient form of prayer that brings the emotions of grief, loss, pain, and confusion directly to God while maintaining trust and faith in the divine. This ancient poetic style of prayer follows a specific structure. It starts with an address or cry to God, a raw complaint about the suffering, a petition asking God to act, and a declaration of trust. Laments end with a vow to praise. 

The hope of this lament is to sit with the pain and discomfort of the lynching tree and how its roots are continuously watered. It references both Psalm 53, where King David prays for safety, victory, and the defeat of enemies, and Black Liberation theologian James Cone. The Christmas tree reference is a nod to the writings of Dr. Melanie Harris.

Cone published The Cross and the Lynching Tree in 2011 and drew a parallel between the horrors of Jesus dying on the cross and the public spectacle of American lynchings (Cone, 2011). He acknowledges the redemption of the cross, while the lynching tree remains a site of terror.

The lament, The Cross, the Lynching Tree and the Axe, is a modern take. It calls on God to chop down the lynching tree and carve a new future of hope and equity.

The entire book of Lamentations and nearly one-third of the book of Psalms are laments. In the book Prophetic Lament, Soong-Chan Rah calls laments “honesty before God and each other” (Rah, 2015). His writing described lament as an act of protest and that “the story of suffering is… swept under the rug in order not to create discomfort or bad feelings” (Rah, 2015).

He connects the funeral dirge with the unhealed, unacknowledged racial history of the United States. Rah said the “nation’s tainted racial history reflects a serious inability to deal with reality. Something has died, and we refuse to participate in the funeral” (Rah, 2015, p. 47).

In the face of injustice, laments are a powerful and spirit-led response. Each month, Soulfully Rich Living publishes a monthly lament that centers pain, harm, and injustices and boldly brings them to God. The Monthly Laments series is currently available under the “Soul Justice” pillar of Soulfully Rich Living.

References

• Cone, J. H. (2011). The cross and the lynching tree. Orbis Books.

• Rah, S.-C. (2015). Prophetic lament: A call for justice in troubled times. InterVarsity Press.