Mark 12:41-44
He [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
The men who attend worship at St. Dysmas—a congregation located inside the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls—earn between 25-40 cents/hour working inside the prison. This means that most of the community members make around $5/week, though it still costs $1.25 for them to buy a bar of soap. I guess living wages don’t apply inside prisons, either.
Pastor Jeff, the senior pastor of St. Dysmas, challenged the congregation in 2022 to think outside the box about how they were going to live out their faith. He told them, “Just because you’re in prison doesn’t mean you get out of the call to love your neighbor. So figure it out, how are we gonna support our neighbors? And that can be the guys around you, but think bigger than that because you’re in the world.”
The congregation responded well to this challenge and decided to use their inmate offering to sponsor the homeless ministry in Sioux Falls, Church on the Street.
At the end of the year, they presented their offering of $1,001 to Church on the Street.
If you do the math and adjust that to wages resembling minimum wage, that offering is equivalent to around $45,000 in the outside world. From people doing time inside of a prison. From people who make 25 cents per hour.
I had goosebumps.
Pastor Jeff didn’t stop there, though. He told his congregation again in 2023, “Healthy congregations look outside themselves. We’re a healthy congregation. What are we doing?”
The congregation decided to sponsor Church on the Street again.
In April, the day after I spoke with Pastor Jeff, he was going to present a check to Church on the Street for $2,271. Over double what they gave last year. This year, one parishioner donated his entire annual salary.
Pastor Jeff finished by saying, “That’s faith in action in my world.”
The starting rate for jobs in the Denver Women’s Facility is 12 cents/hour. This means that the women who worship at New Beginnings—a weekly worshipping community inside the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility—make even less than the men at St. Dysmas. Again, the gender pay gap knows no bounds.
Like St. Dysmas and all other prison ministries, New Beginnings is financially supported by people outside of the ministry: local congregations, grants, individuals, monthly givers. A majority of their operating budget doesn’t come from the people worshipping in the pews. But that doesn’t stop the women in the community from taking ownership in this way.
Pastor Samm, the pastor of New Beginnings, said that many of the women in the community tithe to New Beginnings. This tithe might only be 80 cents or a dollar, but they give regularly and it has become part of the culture. So much so that every woman on their inside church council gives monthly to the church. It’s a key part of what it means to be in leadership.
What strikes me about these stories is not the amounts—of their wages or their offerings. Giving is rarely ever about the amount.
What is striking to me is that these are stories of God’s abundance in places of dire scarcity.
The communities in these prisons work hard on the inside and make a dehumanizing amount of money doing it. They will never be recognized for their gifts or receive year end donation statements or have their name on a room or building. In the case of St. Dysmas, the men who gave will most likely never meet the people on the receiving end of their gift.
But they still choose to give.
They still choose to put their copper coins into the treasury, even when it’s nearly everything they have, because they carry their neighbors’ needs as their own and see their (literal) quarters as enough. No, as more than enough.
It is humbling to witness how God continues to give to Her suffering world and our neighbors through all people, in all circumstances. There is no person who cannot be the flow of God’s giving in the world. There is no situation dire enough for God to not work through it. There is no gift small enough to not be used by God to care for God’s people.
God’s giving never stops. It never ends.
Not even in prison.
💰
Where has God shown you abundance when you were expecting scarcity? What are the copper coins God has given you that you can offer to your neighbor?
These reflections, experiences, and dedicated time for writing is thanks to the generosity of The Reverend Janet Karvonen-Montgomery Preaching Fellowship from Luther Seminary. You can learn more about Rev Janet and the Fellowship here.
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