FROM THE PASTOR

Advent-Christmas 2022

Stephanie, the homeless evangelist of Bainbridge Avenue in the Bronx, died alone on a subway car.  During the first week of Advent Janet and I sat in the quiet sanctuary for the memorial service, watching the flickering first candle on the wreath.  Around us were many of Stephanie’s companions in her life’s sometimes tortured journey. 

She was a regular participant of St. Stephen’s Meals at Epiphany Lutheran Church and worshipped there often.  Like many of the homeless and poor in the neighborhood Stephanie was not just a recipient of the church’s ministry of compassion, but also a church member with her own ministry.  Epiphany offers community along with compassion, the Bread of life along with daily bread.  Her ministry through Lutheran Social Services had allowed my wife, Janet, to share in the ministry of Epiphany.  Stephanie was close to her heart. 

Pastor Elise Brown greeted the gathered flock, a mixture of congregation members and neighbors, many of them homeless, most of them poor, many of them addicted, others with a variety of illnesses of body and mind.  She gathered us together in the Name of Jesus and lifted up Stephanie as one who shared Jesus with everyone who touched her life.  It was Stephanie who took the new bibles meant for the Sunday School children and passed them out to the homeless and poor of along Bainbridge Avenue.  Pastor Brown invited remembrances from the gathered children of God.  It was in the midst of this testimony that I was filled with Advent longing and gratitude for the presence of Jesus in churches like Epiphany. 

In the testimony that followed I understood that Epiphany was not only a congregation for the poor, but also a congregation of the poor.  Here was public sanctuary for the lament and comfort of the community.  People spoke about times that Stephanie had prayed for them, encouraged them in trouble and tragedy, and always testified to the power and love of Jesus.  A young lady, so strung out and angry she could hardly stand still, read the prayer from the LBW for those who are addicted.  A man sitting in the front row, who had at times been cruel to Stephanie, cried out his loss and regret.  A woman who had recently been homeless testified to the death and resurrection of Jesus and sang a beautiful spiritual.  The refrain in each of the remembrances was the same:  Stephanie was a friend of the poor and a lover and evangelist of Jesus.    

We gave her up to Jesus in the commendation, prayerfully sending this homeless person to her room in God’s house of many rooms, where a place has been prepared for Stephanie in her baptism. 

This was not some seasonal made-for-tv “feel good” holiday story.  The cadence of the liturgy was touched by the chaos of broken lives, by anger and rambling incoherence.  Many who remembered Stephanie would themselves leave the church remembered by no one, at the edge of survival. 

But this is an Advent story, about the entering into human existence of one “who thought equality with God not something to be grasped, but humbled himself and became obedient, even unto death, even death on the cross.”  At the center of such Advent stories are congregations like ours—where we share member care, “good gifts.” compassion bags, holiday cards for those in need-and servants of the Cross like you.  Broken lives await transformation in every one of our churches, schools, social ministry organizations, chaplaincies.  And Emanuel arrives, Word made flesh, through a little of what you and I, and those we serve offer in the Holy Spirit’s power.   

I greet you this Advent and Christmastide with gratitude to God for our partnership in the Gospel, and prayerful support for our ministry with the Stephanies whom God sends to accompany us.  And I greet you knowing that there are days when we are Stephanie, in need of the comfort of the Gospel.  Even so, Lord quickly come.  Come, Lord Jesus. 

Stephen Paul Bouman
St. Luke’s, Park Ridge