"The Penny is a dying breed!" Oh the humanity! If only the pair of weathered, tristful Lincolns I swiped off the chilled walkway under Blair Hall knew how endangered their very existence truly was. Sadly, I can't really argue the bureaucratic motion to axe the beloved fiscal mainstay. The current one-cent piece actually costs almost two cents to produce and any penny minted prior to 1982 is worth more in its weight in copper than it's given monetary value (talk about throwing money away). In fact, the penny is little more than a jar-bound, minutely meaningful token which rarely sees the light of the average business transaction. More often than not they become delegated to the sidewalk or Barnes and Noble parking lot where even the most entrepreneurial of 6 year-olds selectively ignores them, finding the act of bending over is worth much more than even a handful of the little guys.
As I was writing this I suddenly remembered that I myself had a collection of copper cents slurred around my desk area. After about 5 minutes of extended effort and detailed digging I scrounged up around a $1.17. Not bad to be honest. A penny may not (literally) be worth its weight, but a buck seventeen...that's a different story. That's a cup of gas station coffee, a pack of Sour Patch Kids, maybe even a pack of gum. I've always wondered what kind of glances I'd get paying for something in all pennies, I'm sure some of you may know what such glares and eye-rollings may look like.
What are we to do with these now-irrelevant pieces of "ancient history"? Ohio Representative Zach Space proposed a couple years back that the US Mint begin production of copper-coloured, steel pennies in order to cut production costs, which would save the US Government over 500 million dollars in 10 years. Francois Velde suggests that the US change the monetary value of the coin from one cent to five cents. Many have even suggested the removal of the cent altogether; suggesting we round our prices to the nearest nickel. Regardless, even the most pragmatic and utilitarian of solutions still leaves a hoard of brooding questions: how will one be able truly offer a "penny for one's thoughts"? Is "a penny saved" truly a "penny earned" if it becomes little more than an archaic artifact? Further, will our nickel face the same face as our good friend the penny? Is Thomas Jefferson next on the list of axed currency? What a tragedy! As if it wasn't cruel enough to cut the two-dollar bill out of circulation!
It's easy today to cut out what doesn't fit the bottom line, and understandably so. Every day new stories come out of factories shutting down, public resources being dried up, and hundreds of opinions of just how, or when, the economic shortfalls may be fixed. Though the term may soon be obsolete we are in a time where the "penny-pincher" thrives. Just yesterday night a new report flashed across the screen; Camden, New Jersey lets go of one half of its police force, Detroit is shutting down almost one third of their public school system, and many other places are facing similar fates. It makes one wonder if a penny does make a difference when such massive deficits exist.
Once, there was a woman, a widow, who like many of us, was feeling the stifling effects of the current situation. She lived in a decaying, one-room apartment. Her furniture was meager at best, hunched over like the woman herself. She was in her upper sixties, maybe older, with the weight of nearly fifty years of hard work bearing heavily on the corners of her somewhat hallowed face. Covering herself in simple garb, she slowly scuffled down the sidewalk past what used to be a thriving neighborhood, now sterile and silent as the factories surrounding this specific block of any large metropolitan area you can name. She ventured into a large cathedral, Anglican or Episcopal or Presbyterian or something along those lines, as the daily Sunday crown adorned in heavy jackets scuffled to their lives, leaving her alone down the long aisle towards a pile of empty offering plates. Looking over her shoulder with a tint of embarrassment she quietly placed a handful of odd change out of pocket, a few quarters, some dimes, a nickel or two, and a handful of pennies, and with a solemn sight slowly trodded her way out.
It was outside that she saw Jesus awaiting her on a nearby bench. With an understanding nod he ushered her forward to the empty seat to his right. With much effort she slunk onto the bench as he spoke with kindness "My dear, thank you so much for the gift, I love it." She shrugged sadly as she loosened her straggled grip on her scarf. "My Lord, it was honestly nothing. I'm ashamed its all I had. I haven't given in months, I'm so sorry, its just times are touch, too tough. What I got left is barely enough to pay for food, much less...well...." Her voice drifted into melancholy and then into silence.
"Truly my dear, you have put more into that place than all the others who filed out of these doors today." He smiled "indeed the heartfeltness of your gift truly was a gift. " (Mark 12)
No penny is insignificant, no moment too mundane, and no person unable to serve. Our offerings of worship go beyond mere bottom lines or percentages; true worship is true conformity and true conformity does not focus on whether one's task and purpose in the moment is of momentous significance. The Christian life is one where the grace of God flows not only into the most public of squares, but even more so into the cracks and crags where no one else dares, or cares, to venture. It is the type of worship which dares to reach out to the marginalized, attempts to let faith move us where we dare not to go ourselves, and shuns even the most vicious and vivid of our temptations. It sheds off the shield of individuality and puts on the personhood which God always intended us to be and, in doing so, offers worship to the one who created all things. One of the truest expressions of faith is to reach beyond our own cosmic expectations and venture into the near-meaningless for it is there that the work of God truly finds significance.
The Kingdom of God is a kingdom unlike any other; where the first shall be last, the weak shall be strong, and even the common penny carries innumerable weight.
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