The Gospel of Luke tells of Jesus going to the home of a Roman centurion whose valued servant was dying. When Jesus came near, friends of the Roman officer met Jesus and said, “Our master says he is not worthy for you to enter his home. That is why he has not come to you himself. He only asks that you speak the word, and he knows your word will heal his servant.”
When Jesus heard this he was amazed at the centurion, and Jesus said to the crowd around him, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”
The summer of 1971 in Sherman, Texas was one of the hottest, driest summers on record. The temperature soared into the hundreds day after day. It hadn’t rained in what seemed like forever. The merchants at the Sher-Den Mall decided to seize the moment. They hired a Comanche spiritual chief by the name of George “Woogie” Watchetaker. Watchetaker was already world famous, and a national champion for performing his rain-dances. They publicized it in the newspaper and on TV: “Come to Sher-Den Mall this Saturday morning at 11 and see Woogie Watchetaker perform an authentic rain dance.”
People came and brought the kids. The parking lot was full. There was a carnival atmosphere in the air. One wonders if anyone seriously believed an old Comanche could make it rain.
At the given hour, Woogie Watchetaker made his way through the crowd. No one could remember ever seeing a Native American dressed in such stunning, authentic regalia: eagle’s feathers, beaded wrist bands, ankle bells over moccasins, bone breast shield, bear claw necklace, painted face and spectacular war bonnet. When he got to the center of the crowd he stopped, and the folks backed away to give him room.
He quietly voiced an incantation, perhaps a prayer, and started to dance. He chanted hauntingly as he moved from one foot to another, twisting and turning about in a circle. Every now and then he would look up to the sky and gesture to the Great Spirit; but, for the most part, he kept his head bowed to the ground. His feet never stopped moving.
Woog ie Watche t a ker danced perhaps fifteen minutes. The merchants got their money’s worth. When the dance was over, old Woogie was panting and sweating. Everyone gave him a polite round of applause and went home or into the mall. Most everyone truly believed that the weather pattern would remain. Yet, that night, the city of Sherman heard the deep rumbling of thunder. Then the rain came down in torrents.
Was it because of Woogie’s rain dance? Or was it because a front had moved into the area? But all that really mattered was how an old Comanche Indian had the imagination to dance in front of a crowd of strangers and call on the Great Spirit to make it rain. And to think, as far as anyone knew, he wasn’t even a Christian, as neither was the Roman centurion of biblical ages past.
What an amazing faith! In Luke’s gospel, elders had come to Jesus asking, “Please answer the centurion’s request; he is worthy.” Soon after, the centurion sent other messengers with the message: “I am not worthy for you to come under my roof.”
“He’s worthy.” “I’m not worthy.” And Jesus not concerned with either proclamation. What amazed Jesus was a faith he had not encountered in Israel. We might say, today, that he had not found such faith even in the churches. A faith that proclaims, “Just speak the word, Jesus; just speak the word.”
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