January 19 Monday Pastor Post
Sullivan UMC—J. Michael Smith
My In Town Hours this Week
- Tuesday all day
- Wednesday all day
- Any day: reach me at 217-898-3148 or jms754@gmail.com
Gratitude
Thank you for the warm welcome to the church that you prepared for me yesterday. It was a delight to talk to as many people as I could, to sit with some of the kids to eat, to see everyone bustling about in the kitchen, and to look around the room and see my people enjoying fellowship with each other. I am beyond happy to be welcomed into the fellowship of First United Methodist Church in Sullivan.
Bears Game Last Night
Well…the team gave us more thrills this year than even the Super Bowl winners of 40 years ago. My heartbeat was just as fast (in that last half hour of last night’s game) as if a real bear had invaded my living room. On to next year.
Watch Yesterday’s Worship Service
Monday Essay
Obituary for the Pesky Penny
Alas the poor penny has passed away. It’s pushing up daisies. It bit the dust. It kicked the bucket. It was assassinated by the president.
Donald Trump once boasted, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any voters.” He hasn’t exactly done that yet, but he did kill off the penny with a tweet in the middle of last year’s Super Bowl. Due to one of those executive orders, the final penny was minted November 12, 2025.
The penny has bought the farm. If you want to be literal about it, the estimated 200 billion pennies still in circulation would land you a $2 billion farm.
The penny was born in 1792. It’s official birth name was The One Cent Piece. “Penny” was its nickname, handed down from its British and Scottish ancestors.
Since 1857, the penny has been the smallest sibling in the U.S. coin family—ever since Congress killed off the half-penny.
(Historian’s note: four years after congress eliminated the half-penny, the nation was plunged into Civil War. So…maybe think about staying indoors during 2029 until it seems safe to come out.)
Supposedly the One-Cent-Piece was costing too much to make. Every shiny new penny was actually a bad penny in disguise because it was costing the U.S. mint 3.69 cents to manufacture. The penny had gone from being a source of revenue to just another liability in the national budget. In other words, the penny had evolved into another form of government assistance to national commerce. In contrast, the quarter, which only costs 12 cents to produce, and the dime, which costs 6 cents to make, have been money makers for the government. The penny, however, is merely another public service. The back of the penny should have been stamped, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”
You know how some people—while they are alive are a constant pain in the butt—but when they finally pass away—we feel kind of bad? Well, that’s how I’m feeling these days about the penny.
I didn’t used to like them. They were once all over the place. And you couldn’t buy anything anymore with a handful of them. And you couldn’t get rid of them. You could pay cash at the store and try to spend your penny stash down over time. But then, just as soon as you thought you’d spent your last penny, you’d end up at a store that charges you $9.96 for something, and all you’d have is a ten dollar bill–WITH NO PENNIES LEFT, and BAM, you’re stuck with four more of those little critters. Before you could say, “Keep the change,” the some cheapskate clerk had given you four more pennies. Why couldn’t they just give you a nickel?
When I was a little kid, I used to thrill at the sight of a penny on the ground. I’d pick it up and cherish it. All I’d need were a few more pennies and I’d have enough to by myself some junk food. But inflation you know. By the time my kids were little, they’d excitedly see a penny on the ground and I’d growl at them, “Leave it alone, it’s dirty.”
Even now I look at my one gallon glass coin jar and lust for more quarters, cursing all those useless pennies.
This past Christmas I decided to wrap up some of the coins in that glass jar and give them to my four grandchildren. The three older ones are already in school. I knew I had to fish out the quarters and give each of them a $10 roll if I wanted to impress them.
But bless 3-year-old Maeve. She’s smart, but not money smart. That’s why, when it comes to money, she’s my favorite. I wrapped up THREE roles of pennies to give her. She was delighted to get more rolls than the others. Plus, her coins were “gold,” not the dull silver ones her sister and cousins got.
But my crabby attitude toward pennies is now over, now that the president has offed them. I’m even feeling remorse for my once condescending attitude.
People will no longer walk out of church muttering, “A penny for your thoughts” at me. (Meaning of course, we think that sermon was worth a penny rather than that whole week’s salary you’re going to get.)
And regarding all the penny pinchers I know, I’ll have to come up with a new insult. (Calling someone a “nickel pincher” just makes me sound silly.)
I will no longer be able to preside at a penny wedding. (That’s a wedding where the bride and groom collect money from all the guests in order to pay for the whole thing.)
I will no longer be able to think, “Finally…the penny drops” when the person I’m talking to finally gets it after the 15th time I’ve tried to explain it.
I will no longer be able to use the phrase “penny wise and dollar foolish” to my church finance committee when they pinch pennies so hard that they alienate people who could potentially donate thousands of dollars to the church.
Children will no longer have the joy of looking under car seats and couch cushions to scrape enough nickels, dimes, and PENNIES to buy a candy bar. (Actually, I was still doing that well into my 30s.)
Kids will no longer collect pop bottles, 5 of them, in order to cash in the money for a cold bottle of Nehi Grape.
And I’m not only feeling grief at the death of the penny, but it’s also got me to worrying about national security. After all, Canada killed off its penny in 2012. And now look at it. It’s in danger of losing is sovereignty to the neighbor from the south, which has threatened to annex it, right after it’s done annexing Greenland, Venezuela, Panama, Nigeria, Gaza, Iran—and Minnesota. While Canada is hopeful that its neighbor likely won’t have enough soldiers, weapons, and money left after all that other annexing to be much of a threat—still. I worry about everything these days. If Canada’s problems all started with the elimination of its penny—how much worse might things get in our own country?
In the middle of the depression (1936) Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnston wrote a song to lift people’s spirits. “Pennies From Heaven.” Bing Crosby would make it famous. “Every time it rains, it rains pennies from heaven. Don’t you know each cloud contains pennies from heaven…So when you hear it thunder, don’t run under a tree. There’ll be pennies from heaven for you and for me.”
Other than giving bad advice about running under a tree during a thunderstorm, the song reminds me that the only reason we think pennies are an aggravation is because their blessings are so small. We only gripe about pennies because we think they’re not enough for what we need.
A penny is a blessing, the smallest unit of monetary blessing we can have. Literal pennies are simple material objects that generally lose their value over time due to inflation.
Theologically, however, God is well known for giving us blessings in units so small we hardly notice. So small that we are often aggravated by their minuteness in comparison to the huge wants and needs and anxieties and griefs that we have.
But those metaphorical pennies—the smallest doses of blessing life can give us, are the opposite of the literal penny. Miniature blessings do not devalue over time, but increase exponentially when noted with gratitude. A metaphorical penny can quickly increase to a metaphorical million dollars.
Condolences to all who’ve enjoyed the value of a literal penny. The penny is survived by its immediate siblings, the nickel, the dime, and the quarter. There are rumors that the nickel may itself be terminal—as it costs 14 cents to make. Be forewarned that as soon as our government gets its act together, the nickel will meet the grim reaper too. But don’t worry, as it is highly unlikely the government will get its act together during our lifetimes.
Memorials to the late penny may be sent to the church I am currently serving in Sullivan. Just hundred dollar bills, no pennies please.
CLICK HERE to listen to Pennies From Heaven
Repertoire 