You Want Them On Your Bus!

Luke 3:7-18

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 

In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

“You brood of vipers!”  If John was anything, he was honest.  But ‘honest’ was strange in John’s day.  Nobody was honest.  Living like a snake is how the world had always been.  It’s how you got by.  But what if the people gathered there knew it wasn’t right?  Wished it could be different.  What if they were there because they genuinely, really, and truly WANTED life to be different… but they knew that if they changed just on their own… If they started being honest in the middle of a world that relies on dishonesty… well, how would they get by?  Those people gathered there in front of John?  I think they knew they were like a brood of vipers… like a tangle of snakes, brooding in a hole.  Trapped.  No where to go.  Scared out of their minds, wanting something better out of life, but completely paralyzed with fear, not knowing any other way to live.

When my psychology guru, Kevin Polk, talks to people who are stuck like the people who came out to see John, he doesn’t use the image of a brood of vipers.  He says it is like you’re a bus driver who wants, more than anything, to drive your bus toward the people you love, toward the ways of living you value, toward a world that gives life and doesn’t take it away.  You know where you want to go… or at least a direction you’d like to try.  You’re in the seat, the engine is warm, you’ve even put it in gear… BUT you find that your bus is surrounded by a horrible, seemingly infinite, menacing, zombie-like horde.  And as you look closer at that terrifying horde you realize that THIS horde is made up of all of your personally curated, hand selected, custom designed, and meticulously crafted fears.  Not even the smallest, most insignificant fear is missing from the horde!

Surrounding your bus, they block your bus from moving even an inch.  This is how its been.  This is how it will be, your fears tell you.  There isn’t another place you can go!  There’s no changing now.  You couldn’t survive there anyway.  Sure, where you’re stuck right here isn’t perfect, but at least you know it.  It’s familiar.  And look at us!  Your fears!  We’re familiar too!  So just shift that bus of yours back into park, turn off the engine, and climb out of that bus and stay right here… and brood some more with us.

That’s how the tax collectors and soldiers were stuck!  They didn’t like shaking down people… but the Romans had told the soldiers that was their side hustle.  They weren’t paid enough to live.  They needed a side hustle.  They were stuck.  The tax collectors were stuck too.  The only pay they got was what they got out of people over and above what the people owed.  That was it!  They weren’t paid another way.  They were stuck, like a brood of vipers… without the first clue how they might drive their bus out of that situation and toward a new live… toward what they valued… toward the people they loved!  

What John did for this brood of stuck vipers, was to help them see, not their final destination, but just… one… next… step.  He didn’t tell the tax collectors to stop collecting taxes.  He told them to collect no more than was prescribed.  He didn’t tell the soldiers to desert the Roman army.  He told them stop shaking down the locals!  

But how could they?  How could they even move an inch surrounded by such a horde of fears shouting at them, “How will you make a living?  How will you eat?  This is the way it’s always been done.  You didn’t build the world this way.  Sure, this may not be perfect, but at least it’s known.  It’s familiar… it works, pretty much… sorta.  So just put your bus back into park, turn off the engine and climb down here and brood with us.  We’re familiar after all.” 

So how… HOW do you move your bus forward when surrounded, not by little, silly, insignificant fears, but by huge, genuine fears, created by very real and very powerful traumas?  How about waiting until the crowded horde of fears starts to wander?  Just wait the fears out?  Well, if you wait for the day your fears move out of the way on their own, you’ll find that day never comes.  John knew that.  The brood of vipers knew that... and you know that too.  Deep down anyway.  So how?  

Here’s how.  You invite that whole horde of fears onto your bus with you.  I know, it sounds crazy but what you're driving isn't a bus by accident!  It’s a bus on purpose!  It’s a bus so there’s room for each and every one of them to take a seat.  They’ll be happy because they get to stay with you, but what they never count, is with them on the bus, they are  no longer blocking your way forward!  Now YOU can start driving!  Yeah, once they realize it, they will probably make a giant fuss in the back but by then it's too late!  You're driving your bus toward what you value… toward the people you love… toward the Kingdom of God… toward really living again, or maybe even beginning to live for the very first time.  

You say that sounds hard?  Darn tootin! It’s hard!  Impossible even!  But I am here today to tell you that ONE, more powerful than John the Baptist has come; one whose sandals John wasn’t worthy to untie.  So invite your fears onto your bus.  Ignore the racket from the horde behind you, and get your bus rolling.  Now, once it’s moving, notice the heat growing under your drivers seat.  Notice how good it feels.  That’s no seat warmer.  THAT is Christ’s unquenchable fire lit beneath your seat so you'll keep moving!  And that One, with impossible to untie sandals and an unquenchable fire... That ONE will be with you single inch of your way.  Amen.