REMEMBERING REVEREND CALVIN JONES JR.
San Francisco- Reverend Calvin Jones, Jr. has passed. “Lean on Me” stands out as I have read articles about his life. They mostly centered on his athletic prowess that was formidable unfolding images of David facing Goliath. Although, a warrior in sports, the real and enduring battles were the spiritual ones he won as leader of Providence Baptist Church, following his U.S. Army Veteran father, Calvin Jones, Sr.‘s lead.
What I always remember about encountering Reverend Jones was this sense of peace and harmony that he always exuded. He was never “anxious for nothing.” His voice was always reassuring. He spoke your name and it was as a call to your very soul and he received immediate attention when he called. The work and leadership that unfolded in the lives of thousands of people he touched decade by decade as he preached the Gospel uncompromisingly that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father (For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son, John 3:16-18), cannot be accounted for here. His works are captured in the annals and books of Heaven as surely as the books shall be opened as Revelation 20:12 states. Yet I can say observing his standing up for righteousness in the community, averting social unrest at times and grieving with families who lost their sons and daughters to evil senseless gun violence, Reverend Calvin Jones, Jr. was a bright light in the Bay View at Providence and the City of San Francisco, “a city that sits upon a hill cannot be hid.”
For me personally, Reverend Jones was not only a light spiritually, literally his leadership at a critical time kept the lights on in my house. Speaking with community leader Kelly Armstrong, who first told me this week of his passing at the end of October, I told the story of how he inspired me and kept PG&E from cutting off my electricity.
It was a befuddled time for me, just a few years back. What was I, an award-winning journalist with two BA Degrees with years of experience and dedication community via the Red Cross for a decade, creating the Office of Public Engagement and Information for Dr. Arlene Ackerman for over 50,000 students, a workaholic, doing in a place where I had no job and was fighting Wells Fargo Bank for the second time in two years to stop foreclosing on a Black owned home that I lived in? Although a member of a mega church in San Jose and who dutifully scraped up the gas money to go to church or caught a ride every Sunday even in lean times, who was congratulated in a letter written by that church’s leader as being among the top 5% tithers in the church, my big mega church refused to help me in my time of need. The process of the church’s refusal was also insulting, something I had never even experienced in dealing with secular organizations. “Adding insult to injury” as it is said. Somewhat shattered by the callousness of the treatment , I did not share those details with Reverend Jones. When I told him of my financial situation, his kindness in the moment eradicated the shame and hurt I was feeling as he told me to come immediately to Providence to meet with the care committee that day and bring my PG& E bill. Within a few minutes of meeting with the committee that did not include Reverend Jones, they came back with a check written to me for more than half of the $500, I owed PG&E. The check was written to me, not the utility company, showing not only compassion but trust. The check was written by a small Black church to someone who had been denied by a mega church with over 14,000 members. Ouch, how does that happen in Christendom? That scripture comes to mind of Jesus saying to miracle workers and folks of great accomplishment, “depart from me I never knew you; depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” That church by the way, no longer exists.
I was just someone Reverend Jones had seen in a few community meetings here and there over the years, yet he helped without question. He exemplified what I love about Jesus Christ, “For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard,” Psalm 22:24. He represented Christ and he trained his church members to do so as well.
If Reverend Jones extended such care to those just passing by, one can only imagine the good, the miraculous, the resurrections in the lives of those who were planted in Providence Baptist Church and those affected by those taught by Reverend Jones. Condolences to Reverend Jones’ family, church, friends and all touched by his life. We are all the better as a result.
Reverend Calvin Jones Jr., rest well “good and faithful servant” in the “Rest of the Lord.”
Condolences to the Jones Family, The Right Reverend Timothy E. Gray and members and friends of Providence Baptist Church,
San Francisco.
Jackie Wright
Wright Enterprises
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