FAITH
by
Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (May 23, 2015)
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, King James Version [Paul expostulateth with Peter]).
Greetings In The Holy Name Of Christ Jesus,
My sisters and brothers, there was a dog named Faith---quite a lady in her own right born to carry a message to the heathens oftentimes called devils of neighbors who lived across the street. I am more than sure you understand what I am telling you when I say they were oftentimes called devils---neighbors that appeared with hate in their hearts and without Christ Jesus in their life. Faith escaped her own disenchantment with her sisters at her farm---the farm where she was born, lived a good life and belonged but she; like her sisters vied for the head female dog position of the farm. Faith spent time away at the farm across the street with the “devils” until she won favor from the head male dog who received head from his father. Faith's opportunity came when the head male dog insisted she must stay at her family's farm---he came every day to gently force her back every time she left, so she gave in to his will and returned to sit among her two sisters.
One day under the subtle pressure of Faith not to let him mate until her sisters left the farm her brother forced the older female dog to leave the farm---even though she cried each time he barked in her face---he did not stop barking in her face until she left---so she left. Faith's success grew even more when her other sister who the head dog mated with and bore puppies with left before her puppies reached six weeks old [the usual time that the mother dog weans her pups] soon to reject caring for them except to sit with them in the garden sunbathing for they were born in the winter time. Faith raised her sister's and the head male dog's puppies and raised her own puppies she bore with the head male dog. Yet, she did not abandon the “devils” across the street. She visited with them and took her now husband the head male dog with her to visit and sit with them.
This story could not have a good ending because the “devils” of neighbors practiced hate and they could not love Faith the way she loved them in God's love forgiving the wrong they did and the wrong they said each and every day. Faith expostulated with them the message of God's unfailing love each and every day each time she visited them and witnessed their evil ways and thoughts---she still sat and brought the head dog now her husband with her [as Paul and Peter did with the churches in Galatia to exalt Christian freedom above the law permitting doctrine and practicality of marvelous works to light their way] . She checked their property to keep snakes back and all creatures that should not go inside their dwellings. She especially felt the need to care for one of the visitors of their farm who also visited at her family's farm but it was hard to love him because he practiced hate so much so he felt driven to check everything everyone said and everything everyone did; constantly he focused on “checking”---to the point of madness---obsession, he had to out pace and out do everyone even though he was a dropout from school, he fantasied that he was better than everyone else.
Faith loved this visitor who went around to all the farms---a menace and a busy body “ whimsically checking without thoughts of the perceptions of others. He could not hear them saying, “What is he doing, he is just a dropout from school.” He still like Faith aspired to be the head among the men and women and led into conversation when he met me with, “You think you are better than me.” I did not realize at that moment that it was a cliche' phrase used by the locals in their culture of hate---colloquialism. He meant he challenged me and I came away from the risky welcoming communication accepting his words as a friendship gesture with warning.
Faith did not care how he threatened and how some days he brought treats and some days you could
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see and feel so much hate coming from his gestures that he tried to hide--- it made the dogs run and
hide and those he visited grimaced with apprehension of his intentions, “Was it peace?”---he even made Faith who carried the message of God's love to the “devils” run and hide. The “devils” licked out their tongues like “snakes” do and twisted their bodies in sharp and abrupt halts like they were training animals. It was as if they captured the motions the men of the past made as they worked with their animals and their land on their farms then extracted the movements of their bodies, practiced their way of speaking with their bodies, their manly way---their casual dance of lifestyle that gave a man either class or absurdity---in order to fit in the passageway. However, the men like the visitor to all the farms practiced hate more than anything else and mistreated the animals---they waved fishing rods with fish hooks in their faces until they bit at the hook so that it landed in their mouths cutting them; they threw gasoline or lighter fluid and matches to set them on fire; they hit them with their cars, trucks, S UV's, just any vehicle they drove and checked back to see if they died, if not then they hit them again; they poisoned food with cyanide or food poisoned with anti-freeze---if they could not get the dog to come to them to eat the poisoned plate, then, they threw the food inside their property line or near them to draw them to eat the poisoned food, here in this part of the diaspora of the deep south in southwestern Georgia.
Faith remained loyal even to them to visit them carrying the message of God's love. They tried to take Faith---claim her as their dog but Faith did not let them take just visited with them and sat until the time she had to go home. Someone killed Faith just like someone killed so many of her family of dogs before her who carried them the message of God's love and protected their property from the snakes and creatures that were not allowed to go inside the homes. In a way, Faith knew someone would decide that she had to be crucified but she continued steadfast in God's love to show even “devils” have the love of God available to them. Faith knew God gave man dominion over all the animals and she knew they had to have the love of God in them for the animals to live a good life---to fight for her to live because in the love of God was God's mercy (Genesis 1:26, KJV [“creation of fish, fowl, cattle, every creepeth thing...on the earth”]).
Faith fought for her kind and she died for her kind but when trouble came--- who fought for Faith to live; I do not know whether the young men who today's old men who practiced hate---trained to practiced hate, changed for the better or not---transformed to be new creatures or not,--- themselves convicted by God's love in Christ Jesus. I do know Faith spent every day of her life bringing them the message of God's love in spite of their wicked ways and evil doings, she visited, she sat and she protected them so they did not need to use their guns. Maybe it was because Faith suffered with panic attacks and outcast her children away from where she lived with the head male dog or maybe it was because Faith was jealous of her sisters and her children that they would win the love of the head male dog and force him to leave her as she forced him to leave them in order to win head female dog “bitch”. Yes, this fear that Faith had of losing her standing at her family's farm and in the heart of the head male dog, maybe this fear challenged Faith's faith in God's love---God's will to keep her in her darkest hour even though He gave man dominion over her animal species. God proved himself through Faith for she made it home---poisoned and burned to die on her family's land---to be buried next to her children who were also killed by cars and trucks that hit them a few weeks before Faith was crucified.
How many of you can say, “I know how it feels to be at the bottom of the totem pole---to be the least likely to pull yourself up by your bootstraps ...---to be the one who has to survive tremendous odds of misfortune, poverty, socioeconomic status and the cruelty of the world, to be at the bottom of the heap, to be the one that folks step over and keep going without a good Samaritan nearby someone willing to care for you until you can care for yourself?” For Faith, the battle is won, she is freed from the flesh and leaves us with the message of God's love for the neighbors who we call “devils”. Without Faith's message, I do not know how we are one body---one community, one neighborhood, one world,
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one earth or even one love. Faith suffered a horrible death---(Did Faith die for me? Did Faith die to save me?). God bless her soul and God bless the message she brought us. Recently, I heard a minister preach that a chaplain lost his job for saying in his prayer, “In The Name Of Jesus.” I close out this message, In the Name of Jesus. Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Amen.
