Ramble for Townsville Central City Mission "Reflections" newsletter 18th October 2026

 You must have tried to buy something from a café or store, only to learn that the eftpos terminal is down. But many of us don’t carry cash these days, we rely on our touch cards or mobile phones. So we can’t pay for our coffee or petrol. And some places, even now, don’t accept cards, they have a sign saying “Cash Only”. My favourite shoe repairer, in Flinders Arcade, is like that. It’s only in the last few years that Frosty Mango has started accepting cards. It’s a hassle, but not a disaster. What was a disaster was in the days when you had to have a penny, a big round old penny (Boy, am I giving my age away now 🫩) to go to a public toilet, they were quaintly termed public conveniences, but you didn’t have a penny. Decidedly inconvenient.

A sadder instance is that of the frazzled young mother, children in tow, at a supermarket checkout, counting out coins to make up payment for the food her family desperately needs. She doesn’t have quite enough, and adds shame to desperation as she has to decide what to put back. I’ve heard of a samaritan in the queue behind thrusting a note into her hand and saying, “Here, you just dropped this”.

Our Gospel reading on Sunday from Matthew 22 has Jesus talking about a coin, a denarius, a labourer’s day wage and the amount of tax owed to Roman occupiers. Matthew 17 has a similar story about two denarii being owed for Jewish Temple Tax. What readers sometimes overlook is that Jesus didn’t have a cent on him. He had to ask for someone else to pass him a coin so that he could answer his questioners. Not long before this, he had entered Jerusalem in triumph, but not the sort of triumph that Herod and Caesar sought. On a donkey, and now we know penniless.

Our society thinks in Caesar terms, amassing wealth just as it loses its soul. Here’s God’s solution for restoring that soul from Isaiah 55:

Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread,

and your labour on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

and you will delight in the richest of fare.

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