Can you smell the rain?

I was watching In Class with Carr, a weekly podcast hosted by Professor Karen Hunter and Professor Greg Carr, this past Saturday, April 20, and they opened the teaching with a clip of a young adult talking about the powerful perceptions of some of our elders.

This young woman pointed out that there are times when family, friends and/or neighbors might be sitting on a porch talking and fellowshipping when all of a sudden, an elder might either rub his or her knee and get up and go in the house, or sense something by smell and get up and go in the house.

She pointed out that the elder either felt it was going to rain by the pain in the joints, or smelled the rain that was coming despite it being sunny outside.

She further pointed out that the elder will not try to convince others that it is going to rain, because trying to convince others means that you may get caught by the rain. The elder simply seeks refuge in the house because they could smell the rain.

A storm is coming in this nation politically. I want to know can you, who are reading this article, smell the rain?

Can you smell the rain?

Students are being repressed and criminalized on Ivy League campuses all over the country for their pro-Palestinian protests; can you smell the rain?

The Heritage Foundation, a repressive right-wing organization of people who seek to strip this nation of all policies of equity, have already put out their “Project 2025” plan; can you smell the rain?

The new Speaker of the House who is no friend of equality or justice is about to be ousted like his predecessor, by the Christian nationalist wing who are white supremacists; can you smell the rain?

Lying and obfuscating the facts has become normal because the corporate controlled media in this country is more interested in “clicks and likes,” rather than hard journalism; can you smell the rain?

Social media has provided a platform for all kinds of personalities who have no journalistic abilities. Nor do they care about the truth, only the hefty paycheck they receive from social media by saying absurd things. A majority of those who watch them have not read a book in over two years; can you smell the rain?

I don’t have time to mention the unreal paradox of a former President being on trial in numerous court cases, delaying those cases and still running for the Oval Office, and his supporters don’t see anything wrong with that picture; can you smell the rain?

The nation is divided because in the words of the late Jegna Maya Angelou, “These are yet to be united states.”

The confederate enslavers of this nation have never given up and have been maneuvering politically to take the nation back to the days of old Dixie; can you smell the rain?

Jesus said in Matthew 12 that, “A House divided against itself cannot stand.”

Can you smell the rain?

Our elders when they smelled the rain coming would simply seek shelter. Jesus also said in Matthew 7, “A House built on solid rock will be able to stand the storm…”

There is turbulence in the atmosphere and only solid biblical truth will enable those who can smell the rain to seek shelter and safety.

The solid rock that provides safety, to quote Dr. Theron Williams, is that the “Bible is Black History.”

The word that is the foundation for safe shelter is that Black African people not only received revelations from God about how to handle political storms through righteous resistance and revolutionary biblical explanation but shared those revelations with the rest of the world.

You cannot keep re-packaging evangelical domination-structured interpretations of God, God’s word and God’s will to African people and expect to be able to stand the rain.

White Jesus has not and never will protect or save you.

Jesus said, “knowing the truth will set you free.” The truth has been set before you about Black Jesus, now how will you build your house, because the storms are coming?

For those who say, “his color does not matter…,” I then encourage you to prove it by getting pictures of Black Jesus and hanging them in your churches and homes and saying to your children “that Jesus is who you should strive to be like.”

If his color does not matter, then you should be able to hang Black Jesus in your church and home and love him like you love white Jesus.

Can you smell the rain?

Uhuru Sassa!!!

Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.” Contact the church by email at [email protected] or by phone at 219-944-0500.