An ancient Zen proverb says, “Man is a stone thrown into the pond that causes no ripples.” We all know what that means don’t we? Sometimes, when we look back at the grand sweep of time, or when we look forward, into the distant future, we look at the short little blip that is our own individual life and we wonder if that life really makes much difference in the world or not. Truth be told, sometimes we come to the end of a day, or the end of a year, or even the end of an entire lifetime, and we have the dark suspicion that we really have not accomplished very much. People are born, they live, then they die, and the world goes on, hardly seeming to notice. We’ve all heard the old saw that if you want to know how important you are, just try putting your hand in a bucket of water, then pull it out, and the impact of your life is the same size as the hole that your hand leaves in the water. Maybe it’s true: “Man is a stone thrown into the pond that causes no ripples.”

I’m no Zen expert. What I know a bit more about is the philosophy of Jesus. Toward the end of his life and ministry, Jesus had a long conversation with his handful of close friends about the nature and meaning of human life, about the way God has constructed and organized things, and about how regular folks like them or like you and me should look at the overall scope and trajectory of the lives God gives us. As usual, Jesus told them stories. One of those is very familiar to us, or it should be, and it has become so familiar because it is so fundamental and so telling.

The kingdom of heaven is like this, Jesus says, and he proceeds to tell them about a wealthy man and his dealings with three of his servants. This wealthy man is going away for a while and he is leaving his servants in charge of some of his considerable estate. To one servant he gives five talents, to another two, and to another he gives one. A talent was a measure of money in Jesus’ day that was equal to about fifteen years of wages for a common laborer, so Jesus gets their attention by talking about very large sums of money. You know the story. The first servant uses his entrepreneurial skill to parlay his five talents and double the money. The second servant does the same, earning another two talents. But the third servant is a timid, play-it-safe kind of guy, who is so worried about losing the money that all he does is protect it, which in strictly economic terms, is not very smart. When the boss returns, he rewards the first two servants by granting them even larger responsibility and participation in his business interests and by welcoming them into a closer relationship with him that he describes as “the joy of your master.” There is no further mention of a difference in the amount of money entrusted to these two servants: they share equally in a deeper and closer relationship with the boss and they are welcomed into the boss’s trust and friendship. Not so, of course, with the third servant. The boss is not ambivalent or even very forgiving of the third servant’s caution and conservatism. Because of his fear of failure, his misreading of the boss’s intentions, and his misuse of the resources entrusted to him, he loses the boss’s trust and friendship. In the typical way of overstating important truths, Jesus says the “worthless” servant will be “thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Suffice to say, the fate of the third servant was not a happy thing!

According to Matthew, Jesus told this story as part of a larger discussion about the fact that people need to be constantly aware that God may return to Earth at any time and we should always be ready. This particular story adds another element: it sheds some light on what it is that you and I should be doing while we are waiting for this Day of the Lord to come. And Jesus says that his story is about the Kingdom of God. But what does all of that have to do with you and me at the beginning of yet another year, this one labeled “2007?”

A couple of years ago I was visiting a church member in the hospital following his surgery to have a hip joint replaced. Our conversation took a philosophical turn, and he started talking about his concern that not enough people realized that one of the important goals of life is to make a difference in the world. He talked about our society and the fact that it seemed that all people want anymore is to get a larger piece of the pie, to satisfy their appetites, to take and take and take, without any concern for giving back. I’ve thought about that conversation with Guy Freeborn ever since. I have the same concern. So did Jesus.

When Jesus talked about the Kingdom of Heaven, he was telling us about the way things actually are in the world, with us and with God. And his message here is direct and simple. God entrusts each person with a life and with all the necessary elements to make something out of that life. Not everyone is given the same thing, but each is given something. Each person makes his or her own decisions about what to do with that life. And there are two basic directions a person can go. One direction is positive, upward, outward, working toward something, taking some risks and making some investments and creating something that is of value. The other direction is negative, fearful, unfocused, inward, taking from rather than giving to. To take the first approach is to do nothing less than to participate with God in his own work of creating, which places you within the sphere of God’s will and God’s activity. The second approach moves away from God and away from all that is good. My theological hero Dallas Willard wrote, “Unlike egoism, the drive to significance is a simple extension of the creative impulse of God that gave us being… We were built to count, as water is made to run downhill. We are placed in a specific context to count in ways no one else does. That is our destiny. Our hunger for significance is a signal of who we are and why we are here.”ⁱ

The news this past week has been filled with stories of people who are noted for making a positive difference in the world. Oprah Winfrey has built a school for underprivileged but promising girls in South Africa. Gerald Ford rebuilt integrity and dignity and honor in the highest political office in the land and the most powerful human position on Earth. And those are just two prominent examples of what goes on every day in the lives of so many others. This past fall a book was published that tells the story behind the creation of 35 non-profit organizations that are making a positive difference in the world, including such groups as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, Habitat for Humanity, Angel Tree, Prison Fellowship, and Kids Korps. The book tells about the individual people without whose efforts these enterprises would not have been born. The book’s title is Passionaries. And the book’s author is a member of your church, Barbara Metzler.

Another book came out last year. This one is entitled The Great American Book of Church Signs. It is essentially a photographic collection of church signs from around the country, the kind that have pithy and interesting sayings on them. One of the signs is from the Grace Cathedral church in Blythewood, South Carolina, which says, “I am saved by grace, but for a purpose—to do good works.” That’s good theology! By the way, the author of this book is Donald Seitz, the son of members of your church, Jim and Dee Seitz.

One of Jesus’ central teachings was that God has created you and me for the purpose of participating in his own life and work. God is about the business of creating good, and that is our business as well. When you and I are creating good, we are smack dab in the middle of God’s own will and God’s own life. We have to get over our selfishness, our fear, our paralysis that comes from guilt for what we have done, and get on with the business of doing God’s business in the world.

Last summer, while on my annual study sojourn in the Florida Keys to plan sermons, my two minister buddies and I were returning from lunch. We happened to be in a very fast-moving boat. As we went zipping along in the warm water off of Islamorada, we met one of those personal watercraft things coming at us, the kind that sort of resembles a motorcycle on the water. Riding on it were three guys—young, tan, tall, muscular, athletic—kind of like me, come to think of it! At any rate, they were zipping along at a good clip as well. We waved as we passed each other, and then as they moved behind us, the driver did what I’ve seen a thousand times: they cut across our wake. And then they promptly lost control and went crashing into the water. So much for young, tan, tall, muscular and athletic.

Zen says, “Man is a stone thrown into the pond that causes no ripples.” But Jesus says, “Make waves, make a difference, make something good happen with your life.” When the clock strikes midnight tonight, 1.9% of the year 2007 will already be history. What have you done with your life so far this year? The life you are living right now is the only life you’ll ever have. The time you are spending right now is the only time you’ll ever have on this earth. The church sign of the Congregational Church of Livingston, Montana, said, “Eternity is a long time to think of what you should have done.” Your eternity starts right now. So become a Passionary! Use your “talents!” Make waves! And then, enter into the joy of your master.

Amen.

ⁱThe Divine Conspiracy, p. 74.