PHILADELPHIA -- Jesus Christ had a kind of "double vision" that caused him to take notice of a widow’s mite-sized gift even as he was otherwise surrounded by bishops, scribes and pharisees focused on "worshiping God right," Bishop Stephen Bouman of the Metropolitan New York Synod said today.

Preaching at a eucharistic service at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, Bouman focused his message on the 12th Chapter of Mark, featuring the famous story of the "Widow’s mite." Bouman said the poet Jesus’ "double vision" enabled him to discern "the grandeur of a widow’s giftedness and her thought....She gave everything she had. She gave not from her abundance, but all she had to live on..."

Bouman alluded to Christ’s journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem, a journey that at an initial stage involved loaves and fishes-type crowds and "success," ending up with small groups, "not a lot of miracles --(Christ) abandoned... a cry of ‘My God, where are you?’..."

Bouman told of a "homeless guy, Edgar Lee," who frequented worship services at a city congregation he once served. Lee often "talked back" in response to Bouman’s sermons but "received the Host like it was the Hope Diamond..." On the last Palm Sunday of Bouman’s ministry at the congregation, the preacher said to himself, "I wanted to go home..." But Edgar said, "Gimme a ride..." Bouman obliged. During the trip, Lee steadily critiqued Bouman’s sermon to the point where the bishop said to himself, "I couldn’t wait to get him out of the car."

Arriving at a shelter/motel at the Intersection of Route 46 and the New Jersey Turnpike, Bouman found his van suddenly surrounded by mostly women and children. "It was a place of broken souls," Bouman recalls. Lee, clutching a fistful of palms he’d collected from the church service, said to Bouman, "Get out...Bless them..." Bouman stepped out of the vehicle and blessed the palms, which Lee distributed to the gathering.

"If I’d had bread and wine, I would have fed everyone too...," Bouman said. In a society with its share of mega churches, the bishop noted that "In a place of broken souls at Route 46 and the Turnpike, the only person who passed as the congregation’s pastor was a homeless man."

Bouman said the experience with Lee was a reminder that everyone is gifted to give and receive Jesus.

"So when you look into the baptismal font, I hope you won’t see just water but rather the hands of Jesus grasping you, that today you see Jesus in the bread and wine....That Jesus loves Edgar, and he loves all you..." Bouman’s audience included seminarians, faculty, staff and visiting youth and teachers from a Lutheran high school in Philadelphia.

During Bouman’s visit, he met with students studying in the first professional degree program from his synod. Seven first-year seminarians and 15 other students are enrolled from the territory of the synod.

He also met with faculty and staff over plans for a special program for Latino students now in the preparation stages at the Seminary. The program would be administered jointly with General Episcopal Seminary of New York City.