Two Copper Coins, a sermon based on Luke 21: 1-4, preached on October 25, 2026

There’s an old story about a family with four daughters. In church one Sunday morning, this family with the four daughters heard the preacher talk about another household in the community who was in need. This needy family lived in a small home, yet the children were many, so the need was great. Winter was coming, and with so many mouths to feed and winter on its way, the preacher asked everyone in the congregation to go home and to scrape together what they could, to bring their donations back the next Sunday that together they might lend a hand and make a difference. Well, this family with the four daughters, they didn’t have much to spare, but they heeded the call. Once they were home and the kitchen table cleared, dad placed on it a crate, and the family began to fill it with their donations. Mama went to the cupboard, and from the vegetables she had canned, she put in a few jars that they could spare. Dad had two coats, so he put in one, along with work boots and his extra pair of gloves. The four girls had each received a doll of their own from Santa Clause, but thinking about this family in need, they decided that to have four dolls, one for each girl, was a luxury, so they placed two of the dolls in the crate, as mom and dad stood proudly watching. A quilt was added, then some cookies from the jar. The next Sunday, the youngest girl decorated the filled crate with dandelions. Dad carried their donations into the church as the daughters proudly imagined the difference that they would make to the family in need. They all felt the joy of giving as they walked through the church doors, only there they found that they were the needy family. Every other family in the congregation placed crates of food at their feet. With smiles on their faces, the members of this church surrounded the family with four daughters with food, coats, quilts, and dolls, and the little girls cried because they had a gift to give. They wanted to make an offering, and because they wanted to contribute, the charity of the church felt like humiliation. Our Gospel lesson reminded me of this story because there may have been kindhearted people who saw this widow placing her two copper coins into the treasury. One, out of compassion, might have said, “You have so little. Please don’t. Let us help you. Those copper coins won’t make much of a difference anyway,” for with our human eyes, we judge based on the quantity and the quality, yet Jesus saw the gift that the widow brought and said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.” Jesus, as He always does, says so much in just four verses. My focus is drawn to the reality that it is easy enough for us to overlook some gifts, and yet God notices. God notices the treasure of the sacrificial gift while all too often, we are prone to celebrate what appears grand through our human eyes, and so, we give thanks to God for those who offer their musical gifts through the choir. The benefit of a choir like ours with gifted and trained singers is that Sunday after Sunday we hear music so pleasing that it brings tears to our eyes, yet the problem with a choir like ours is that those of us who are in the pews with modest musical gifts can become sheepish about what we have to offer, as though God were a music critic rather than our Father in Heaven. Does God our Father in Heaven, not love to hear His children sing? I know that God is too great a mystery to be confined to categories like male and female, yet if you know a father who cherishes his children, then Father in Heaven can be a wonderful way to understand our Creator, for when a young child brings home art from preschool, a father frames it. It doesn’t matter what it is. If it’s three hearts and a scribble, a father who loves his children as our Father in Heaven loves us celebrates the artistic genius of the young artist, and we all know that the father who looks at the art brought home from preschool and asks his child, “What’s that supposed to be?” should be tarred and feathered. Right? Why then do we think that just because we don’t sound like the sopranos in the choir, we should whisper the words to the hymns? Does our Father in Heaven not love to hear all His children’s voices? Is our Father in Heaven not moved to tears by the gifts that we all have to give? To want to give is the most natural thing, and those who want to give must not be shamed or discouraged from giving. Last week, I was riding my bike to the church. I rode right past Emily and her daughter Isabelle, who were waiting in the preschool carpool line. They’re almost always first or second in line for preschool drop off, and so there was time for Emily to brush her daughter’s hair, her daughter Isabelle was, in turn, brushing the hair of her Barbie doll. Why? Because we love to give. It’s natural to want to give something. It feels good to contribute, but the judgement of the world makes us so self-conscious. Years ago, I was a pastor in Columbia, Tennessee. I’ve been here as your pastor for nearly 10 years now. It will be 10 years in July. Before being here, I was the Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, Tennessee, which was then a place kind of like Cartersville. In the same way that some people drive from Cartersville into Atlanta, some people drove into the big city of Nashville from Columbia, but others farmed the land, and two or three towns south from Columbia was that much more removed from the city. That was the town of Lynnville, which was so rural that when the new pastor came from Nashville to the church in Lynnville, he was all excited to lead his first pledge campaign, only the congregation didn’t know exactly what they were supposed to do during a pledge campaign, having never had one before, so a member of the congregation pledged to the church “one pig.” That new pastor from Nashville didn’t know what he was supposed to do with that pledge card. He called me for help, as though I would know what to do. I didn’t. The new pastor told me that he had called a friend in Nashville who was so moved by the pledge that he wanted to buy the pig for a $1,000, only he didn’t want the pig. This wealthy man in Nashville was just moved by the sentiment of the gift, and so he bought the pig on paper, gave the church in Lynnville $1,000, and this new pastor was hoping that I could help him get rid of the pig so that the man who gave it would not feel as though his gift were rejected. Well, I knew one man who raised pigs in the congregation, called him, we arranged to go pick up the pig that had been purchased for $1,000 in his animal trailer. Since I was going with him to deal with livestock, I put on my bib overalls. I rode with him to the farm in Lynnville where this pig lived. I didn’t know anything about pigs. I guess I expected the pig to just trot onto the trailer. That’s not what he did. He tried to bite us, and this pig was huge, so I sat in the truck where it was safe, while the pig farmer dealt with Jaws the Killer Pig. Once the pig was back in Columbia on the pig farm, he got big and fat, and that winter, we were able to barbecue Jaws the Killer Pig, who provided enough pork for my whole congregation. We had a fellowship meal for the whole congregation, and the point of the story is that the pig that was pledged to First Presbyterian Church of Lynnville, Tennessee gave the congregation $1,000 and gave First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, Tennessee a fellowship dinner, but how many pastors would have overlooked the beauty of that gift? Into the treasury, the poor widow placed two copper coins. How many would have looked at that pledge and asked, “What’s that supposed to be?” yet I know that our Father in Heaven was glorified by the gift. I know that our Father in Heaven was proud to receive it, was glorified through it, and I tell you that God uses what we offer, no matter how humble, no matter how meek, no matter how we think we could do better, for there may be a difference between a pig and a pledge of $25,000 but the difference between those two sums is nothing compared to offering something and offering nothing at all. My friends, it is better to try. It is better to sing. Yet, we are living in a nation of people who are staying home afraid to try. Only half of us vote. Only half of the members of this church pledge. People join less. People quit, discouraged. So many ask: What’s the point? I’ll tell you, God can take those two copper coins, and with them, He will change the world. Contribute, give, take responsibility for the future of this church and give praise to your Father in Heaven who is watching and celebrating. Amen.