Two Pennies

I have the privilege of serving on the Finance Committee at my church.  One of the duties that falls to the Committee members is to collect the offering after church service, place it in a secured bank pouch, and drop it off at the bank.  The offering plate is usually full of the green envelopes into which church members put their tithes, paper money, and sometimes loose change.  One Sunday, layered under the green envelopes and a few loose bills, were two pennies. I picked up the two pennies and held them tightly in my hand and brought my clenched hand close to my heart.  This offering above all else, took my breath away.  In my eyes, these two pennies represented somebody giving all they had when the offering plate came around.

We are a downtown church in a suburb of a major city in Wisconsin.  Being a downtown church we have the privilege of serving a community that most churches don’t get to serve -- the homeless, the poor, the downtrodden.  Our doors are open all week long so anyone can come in and sit in the sanctuary and pray, or talk to a minister for counsel and prayer.  We are not a rich mega-church; but we do have a supply of peanut butter, jelly, and loaves of bread to hand out to people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from.  As such, every once in a while we get a person joining us for worship service that, well, doesn’t quite fit in.  

I am part of the song leadership team for our church.  We sit up in the chancel area behind the altar and face the congregation.  We get to watch the congregation watching us.  So we tend to see things other attending members, and sometimes even the pastors, don’t.  We see the person with the crumpled coat and bags of stuff sit down in one of the back pews.  We see them look around and try to figure out what they’re supposed to do.  We see the joy in their faces as they listen to the pastor’s sermon and can tell when they have their “lightbulb” moment.  

On this particular day I had noticed such a person sitting in the third pew from the back in the right hand section.  I would like to think those two pennies came from him because I watched his face as our Pastor gave his sermon and I could see that the message given that day seemed to be exactly what he needed to hear.  I watched him change from someone who was hesitant to sing the first few hymns to someone who joined into the last song with praise and thanksgiving.  Those two pennies were given in gratitude.  At least that’s what I would like to believe.

I showed those two pennies to the gentleman who “witnesses” me placing the offering into the locked bank pouch.  

“Look at this,” I said.  “I love this.”  

“That’s probably all they had in their pocket,” he said.

The next day I shared this story with one of my friends.  She had a completely different perspective on the whole story.

“Don’t you think that was an amazing act of generosity?” I asked her.

“Or,” she said, “it was a statement.”

“A statement?”

“Yes, maybe that’s what they thought of the church service.”

Not two pennies but two cents.  That never even occurred to me.  Two cents sounds quite different that two pennies.  It has a very negative connotation.  “I wouldn’t give you two cents for your opinion,” comes to mind.  Someone thought the service was worth two cents?  I just can’t believe that, refuse to believe that.  I guess it’s all about perspective.

If you look at my financial situation, I have been very blessed and two pennies out of my pocket is very little and would probably be seen as a negative statement, sort of like leaving a penny at a table for a waitress who has done a horrible job (which I’ve never done, by the way).  But to someone who has nothing, who may not know where they are sleeping tonight or if they are going to get a meal? Those two pennies may be the difference between making bus fare and not -- and they chose to give it to the church.

If I could look back and pick one thing that has helped me through this very difficult time in my life, and taking my faith in Jesus out of the equation, it is my unwavering belief that humanity, down at the visceral level, is good.  It’s to keep a positive attitude and believe in the best from people.  I am choosing not to think of it as two cents but as two pennies.  I don’t want to have the two-cents mindset.  I want to have the two pennies mindset.  I want to think that humanity is hopeful, not cynical.  

We have a lot to learn from someone who places two pennies into an offering plate.  The bible is full of two-penny stories.  I don’t know for sure who put those two pennies in, but it makes me take a look at myself and ask if I am putting in my “two pennies” worth, not just in the offering plate, but into my faith in humanity.  I am thankful that it was my turn to collect the offering that day.  It was something that I needed to see.  It is these little lessons that make me a better person and give me hope for better tomorrows.   Thanks be to God!