"Thanks" from a Bag Lady

November, 2011

I suppose most downtown churches in America have stories like this one from Calvary Church, Memphis where I served as Rector for over 20 years. She is unknown and unnamed. She must have noticed the glass doors of the church as she paused among the sidewalk crowd. She observed a burial procession making its way out the church doors, across  the broad brick  sidewalks, and then the placement of the casket in the funeral hearse parked on a busy downtown street. Maybe the lights on the altar attracted her attention on that late September afternoon. Maybe her interior spirit and the Spirit guided her.

Who knows, but whatever it was, she opened the glass doors and quietly made her way down the long center aisle to the altar, laid  two plastic bags containing her life belongings at the base of the high marble altar, found a small stool to assist her climb,  laid face down on the altar, and began her prayers. According to the sources who discovered her several hours later, she was still lying face down on the altar, still  praying in a soft voice over and over again:  “Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, (she repeated some names). Thank you, Holy Ghost. Thank you, Jesus".

Her prayers were abruptly interrupted by staff members, informing her that it was time to lock the church for the night. The bag lady’s response was that she hoped she had not upset anyone by praying on the church altar, that she was only trying to get as close to Jesus as she could, and  that she reckoned the altar  to be that place for her “Thanks to Jesus". She then climbed down off the altar, picked up her bags, walked down the center aisle, out the glass doors to the streets, and as far as we knew, we never encountered her again. The only trace she left behind was the shroud-like print of her large, very perspiring body on the fair linen cloth which covered the altar. This was quickly washed and ironed away by some members of a shocked and probably disgusted Altar Guild.

Chances are she is not an Episcopalian. Rarely, if ever, are we that lengthy or that outrageously intimate in our prayers. Generally we use kneelers in the pews rather than climbing on altars to pray our prayers in public places. Later, when I was informed of the incident, and after I had listened to some of the indignant responses from concerned parishioners, aghast that anyone would dare to climb on “our” altar to say their prayers, my inadequate response was that “this unknown bag lady must have strangely and magnificently blessed our church and altar that afternoon with her intimate prayers and persistent thanks to Jesus". I was never quite sure my response was that helpful to their concerns.

And, I also observed further confusion on parishioner faces when I mused how I deeply regretted that I had missed her, and that somehow I hoped that my life might connect with hers. Puzzled, they asked why?? I shared with them, and later did the same in a sermon, that I had a personal request to make of her: Would she please place my name, and the name of our congregation on her prayer list. My God, who would not wish to be included on her prayer list of such sacred gratitude?? Yes, “Thank You, Jesus” is so very sufficient!