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.
John T. Baptist hated snakes. The trouble was… his world was chock full of em’! That’s because once the snakes came to power, nobody, it seemed, could beat ‘em… and if you can’t beat ‘em… people figured they might as well join ‘em. It seemed to be the way of the Roman reptilian world. That’s why, when folks showed up to hear what John T. Baptist had to say, the first thing he did was hold up a giant mirror and tell the crowd to look at themselves. You brood of vipers! Y’all are de-volving! You’re living each day, more and more like a snake… much less than God created you to be!
The people knew he was right. They felt themselves slipping deeper into the snake pit every day, but the folks who stuck around to hear the rest of what John T. Baptist had to say were the ones who still didn’t like it. They knew it wasn’t right. They knew it in their guts. They knew God had given them spines for standing up, not slithering around! But it was hard! Lots of people in power, and a great number of ordinary folks back then decided to get a gut-ectomy and their spines removed in order to slither with the brood.
BUT, there were folks who felt themselves being sucked into the Serpentocracy who wished… hoped… even prayed it could be different. They REALLY WANTED life to be different… but they were scared to be honest in a world that ran on dishonesty… how would they even get by? They were hemmed in by fear. Their dreams of running away and living a new life among the Visigoths SOUNDED wonderful, but it wasn’t reality. They were stuck, like Indiana Jones and Marilyn in the Well of the Souls… surrounded by asps (very dangerous) with just one torch… and it was going out.
When my psychology friend, Kevin Polk, talks to people who are stuck like that, he invites them to imagine they are all bus drivers. Each one with their own bus. He asks them, “if you weren’t afraid, WHO would you drive your bus toward? If you weren’t afraid, WHAT would be the names of the towns you’d put in the GPS? Would you drive toward a spouse… kids… friends? Would you put in town names like Honesty, Kindness, Hospitality and such? If you had a bus and you weren’t afraid, you’d drive toward the people you love, wouldn’t you? Toward some town that promised to give life and not take it away?” wouldn’t you? “Sure BUT” you say… the fear IS here and real! All my fears are like a menacing, zombie-like horde all wearing matching trucker hats! Every single fear I’ve ever had is out there! Even my smallest, most insignificant fear is out there in that horde!
THAT is what those people who came out to see John T. Baptist felt, living in their “Brood of Vipers” world. They each had a bus, sure, but it was completely hemmed in by this fear mongering horde! THIS, your fears told them, is how it will always be! There is no place to go! No changing it now! “We LIKE that you don’t like it”, the fears told their people, “but HEY! at least you know us! We grew up with you! Can’t we just be friends again?” The tax collectors who came out to see John had already given up. Same with the soldiers. They were stuck because the brood of vipers signed their paychecks. If they left that way of life… the way of the serpent… their families would LITERALLY starve! How could they EVER drive a bus toward what they valued… toward the people they loved!
The brilliance of John T. Baptist was that did not have them focus on their final destination, but on just… one… next… small… 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 for them, even moving an inch while being surrounded by such a horde of fears shouting at them, “How will you make a living? How will your family eat? This is the way it’s always been done” was hard. The people knew this isn’t how the world SHOULD work, but they also knew this was how it DID work. “So how, Mr. John T. Baptist… HOW do we move our bus forward when we are completely surrounded… not by little, silly, insignificant fears, but by huge, genuine fears, created by very real and very powerful snakes? Should we wait for the Brood to disperse on their own?” No, because the truth is, fears never go away on their own. We know that too, don’t we? Don’t LIKE it, but we know it.
So, John told them… here’s how you do it. You invite that whole horde of fears onto your bus. THAT’S why you have a bus! You invite them on your bus. They are happy because they are still with you, right? But now that they’re on the bus, guess where they aren’t? Blocking your way! So 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 toward beginning to live for the very first time.
Now, I hear you out there… You say “that sounds hard?” Darn tootin, it’s hard! Pertinear impossible even! But wait… There’s more! You see, there is ONE more powerful than John T. Baptist. One whose sandals John wasn’t worthy to untie, and it is with THAT ONE on your side that you will have all you need to get your bus moving… even just an inch or two at a time… even with inelegant clutch work… even with all your fears hollerin’ their trucker-cap-wearing heads off in the back… It is with that ONE that you will have what you need to drive each moment of your life… even just a little bit at a time… toward the people you love and the ways of life you value and it is THAT ONE who will be with you single inch of the way. Amen.
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