The Divine but of Eternity

The African Apostles Paul wrote these words in his letter to the church he founded in the old city of Corinth. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul penned these words: “We have this treasure in jars of clay, that the extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

In this letter, Paul faces a painful plight as some of the people in the church at Corinth that he nurtured, pastored, and helped turned against him and tried to question his apostolic credentials. This letter is his response to those who were throwing theological rocks at him. 

Yet, despite being hounded and hated, frustrated and forlorn at times, his words here reveal a divine resistance in him. 

Paul confessed to feeling hard-pressed, being perplexed, experiencing persecution, and, at times, being knocked down by the rough realities of life and ministry. However, Paul uses a word that I call a divine conjunction of hope and that word is “But.” 

If you grew up like me, you learned what a conjunction was on Saturday mornings from a TV program called “School House Rock.” Some of you remember, “Conjunction junction, what’s your function…?” A conjunction like “But” cancels out what came before it; therefore, when Paul says we are “hard pressed But not crushed, perplexed But not in despair, persecuted But not abandoned, struck down But not destroyed.” Paul is demonstrating that despite the disappointments and difficulties, despite the setbacks and setups, and despite the betrayals and backstabbing, there is something within, as the old hymn of the church says, “that holdeth the reigns; something within that banishes pain; something within I cannot explain. All that I know, there is something within.” Paul calls that something within a “treasure in clay jars.” 

Paul is demonstrating that when you are, as Jesus called it, a “peacemaker” and a justice seeker, when you are for compassion and care for the least of these, when you are on the side of the dispossessed and disinherited, you are also on the side of a great and Generous God who has a “preferential option for the poor” to quote the Latin liberation theologian Gustavo Gutierrez. 

And that something within, that treasure in clay jars, becomes a divine “But” to that which is life-negating. 

It becomes a divine “But” to “spiritual wickedness in high places.” It becomes a divine “but” to those who would rob us of equity, justice, wholeness, and compassion. Church folks know what would come next if this were a sermon. The Bible says, “Weeping may endure for a night, BUT joy is coming in the morning.” “Many are the afflictions of the righteous BUT, The Lord delivers from them all.” “Even the youths shall grow faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall But, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint.”

So, don’t allow the trauma of Nov. 5th to make you throw in the towel. Hate may have won on Nov. 5th “BUT,” that is not the end of the story, there is another move.

Never forget that Rev. Araminta Harriet Tubman Ross was struck with an iron by an enslaver that caused her to black out periodically, But God used her moments of unconsciousness to give her divine directions to lead others to freedom, and she never lost a passenger. 

Never forget that the Montgomery bus boycott was only supposed to last one day BUT when the city refused to accept the initial meager demands of the MIA, it became a movement where Black folks all over the city joined together to stay off the busses for 382 days and that movement put a death nail in segregation all over the country. 

Never forget that when the assassin’s bullet struck and killed Dr. King on that balcony at the Lorraine Motel 56 years ago, it was supposed to kill his dream, his work, and the will of the people. But God not only passed his dream and his work to others who have kept the flame burning. But on January 20, 2025, while hate will take the oath of office, it will be overshadowed by a statue, a servant and a celebration of one who came as “a drum major for peace and justice” because I believe the almighty will be declaring “truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future and beyond the dim unknown stands God in the shadows keeping watch above his own.” 

Don’t forget, beloved, that love is stronger than hate, life is stronger than death, and as long as there is life, there is hope.

Be authentic, Be encouraged and stay woke. 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.