Mr. Quarter Man

Every once in a while, Mr. Quarter Man will slip me a quarter or two as I'm walking by during some church event. One night after getting home from church, I checked my pockets only to find a quarter and an OSU golf tee in my pocket!

How did that happen? Am I that oblivious to people dropping things into my pocket? Oh, that's right. Mr. Quarter Man was at the event. It definitely was him!

Yesterday after one of the worship services, I'm shaking hands at the door as people are leaving. A very nice lady who I didn't recognized shook my hand and said how much she enjoyed the service. As she took away her hand, a quarter fell to the floor. I politely picked it up thinking that it was her quarter which she dropped by mistake.

As soon as I handed it to her, she gave it right back to me and said, "No, this is your quarter." I said, "Are you sure?" Just then, the next person who was with this lady also handed me a quarter. And then the next person. Mr. Quarter Man was up to his tricks again! He planned this whole thing out during the worship service with his relatives who were visiting him from out of town.

Why did this man become Mr. Quarter Man? This is proof that some people do listen to the sermon. I preached a sermon in the fall of 2009 about how I have a problem hoarding quarters. It was my stewardship sermon. Below is an exerpt from this sermon.

And I just want Mr. Quarter Man to know that the four quarters I received from his family members are being donated to the church. I think by giving me these quarters, he has helped me to become a more generous giver.

Thanks, Mr. Quarter Man! But if it's ok with you, I'd like to keep that golf tee!

From the November 8, 2009 sermon, "Big Spender" by Pastor Robert McDowell

I’m not sure why I’m as fixated as I am with quarters. Perhaps it was that time when I was in a major city, pulled into an open parking spot along a busy street, only to find out that the parking meter only took quarters, something I didn’t have at the time.

Or maybe, it’s because you never know when you want to buy a newspaper on the spur of the moment. And you just never know when you might have a hankering for one of those giant size gum balls. What if you didn’t have a quarter in your pocket? That would be terrible.

Whatever my issues are, I just don’t like to part with my precious quarters. And here I thought I was a big spender!

Maybe this is why I am enthralled with this story of the widow and the two copper coins from Mark’s Gospel.

As Jesus is teaching, he decides to do a little people watching with his disciples. They were sitting across from where the Temple treasury was located. The Temple treasury was most likely a large box that had a little opening at the top of it for people to place their money to support the work of the Temple.

It was out in the open where the crowds would walk, so this would have been a great location for Jesus and his disciples to do some people watching. Picture crowds walking by and once in a while someone stepping up to this treasury box to drop in some money.

Evidently, while they were watching all of this, they would spot a few people who had a lot of money to drop into the box. And because they had so much money to donate, they would stand there for a long time dropping in one coin at a time. But obviously, they didn’t give away everything they had, because they were wearing the nicest clothes and they probably had plenty of money to eat at the finest restaurant later that day.

I can’t help but to think that the disciples would have been impressed as they sat there watching all of the rich people putting large sums of money into the Temple treasury. Who knows, maybe the disciples were feeling a little envious as they watched this impressive display of wealth and charitable giving taking place before their eyes.

As one person after another makes their way to drop in their big payments, someone makes her way to the same treasury box and in a very brief moment, she drops in two copper coins, and is lost in the crowd again.

Jesus, who always knew what to look for in a crowd, turns to the disciples, and makes sure they didn’t miss what this unassuming woman had just done. Jesus wanted the disciples to know who the big spender really was during their people watching exercise. It wasn’t the one wearing the nicest clothes and who gave the highest dollar amount. It was the one who gave all that she had to her name. Two copper coins.
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