Whose Bus Are You Driving? – August 24, 2025

Isaiah 43:14-16, II Corinthians 5:16-20
August 24, 2025

I started out calling this sermon “Ambassadors for Christ.”  That’s nice.  It comes directly out of the reading from II Corinthians.  But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted something with a little more “curb appeal.”  Again, I was thinking about what to put on our sign!  So I finally settled on the title, “Whose Bus Are You Driving?”

I chose that title because, in the early ‘90’s I drove a school bus.  (And I’ve kept my CDL ever since!)  And to get my bus license, I had to go through 45 hours of classroom work, plus the driving lessons.  And I’ll never forget a couple of things the trainer said in that class.  The first thing was “Never forget that our company name is on your bus!  And it’s in one-foot-tall letters!”  “So, how you deal with the public reflects on us, not on you!”

Have any of you ever driven a commercial vehicle with a company’s name on it?  Or maybe it was a vehicle with a recognizable shape or size?  If you did, then think about it!  You were representing that company.  You were their ambassador!  What you did and said reflected on them!

That’s what I was thinking about this week as I was reading this passage from II Corinthians.  Paul wrote, “So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us!” (II Cor. 5:20)  That’s what I want you to think about today – and as you do whatever it is you do this week.  Think about being an ambassador for Christ.  Think about God making his appeal through you!   Maybe imagine yourself a bus driver, and think about who’s name is on the bus – in one-foot-tall letters!

Paul begins that thought by reminding us that we are “new creations.”  You know this passage.  “The old has passed away,” he said.  “Behold the new has come.”  Think about being that “new creation” when you’re out there being an ambassador for Christ!  What does that look like?  How do you act?

I might also ask, how do you re-act?  And “re-actions” are different than actions, aren’t they?  Reactions are that quick responses to things that we don’t have time to think about ahead of time!  When something unexpected happens, it’s easy to feel that “reaction” rising within us, isn’t it?  Don’t we feel that?  The opposite of “re-acting” to something is being “pro-active.”  Maybe you’ve heard that word before.  That means deciding ahead of time how we’re going to act.  And being pro-active in the moment isn’t always easy, either!

So, you are ambassadors for Christ.  That’s what Paul tells us here.  When you say you are a Christian, when you say you are a follower of Christ, that’s what you become!  You’re now driving his bus.  And his name is on the side!  Maybe that adds a little more meaning to Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount, when he said, “You are the light of the world!”  We’ve talked about that recently!  He said, “You are like a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden.” (Matthew 5:14)  And so you are ambassadors for Christ.

I asked my computer to do a little cross referencing of this in the Old Testament.  And it took me right to this passage from Isaiah 43.  “’You are my witnesses,’ says the Lord.”  “’You are my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know me and believe me and understand that I am he.  I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.  I declared and saved and proclaimed when there was no strange god among you, and you are my witnesses,’ says the Lord.” (Isaiah 43:10-12)

So that’s the first thing I remember from my bus training.  The company name was on the bus!  What we do, and how we act, reflects on their company, not on us.  Well, the other thing he said that I’ll never forget, was about our passengers.  He said the kids on our bus would come from all walks of life, and in some areas of town that would be a not-so-great a life!  And he said to us, “You might well be the high point in their day!”

I will never forget that.  Because that was my experience!  I picked up kindergarten through fifth graders in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Topeka.  They were sweet little kids.  But I often listened to the stories they told of the awful things that happened in those neighborhoods – the fights, the gunshots at night, and the domestic problems!  They were things K through 5 kids shouldn’t have to deal with!  And I realized the bus trainer was right.  I often was the high point in their day.  And I always took that seriously!  I listened to them.  I asked them things.  We had a little joke going.  Sometimes in the afternoon, as they got on the bus, I would ask them, “Did you learn anything today?”  And they’d say, “No.”  So I’d say, “What?  You mean I brought you all the way over here, and you didn’t learn anything?”  “Sheesh!”

Think about it.  As Christs ambassadors, we may be, and often are, the high point in someone’s day – whether we realize it or not!  And we may never know when that’s about to happen!  So take that seriously.  And that means more than just not doing anything that would reflect poorly on the Church.  That means more than just not being reactive.  It means being “proactive.”  It means deciding ahead of time that we will make a positive impact on somebody, that we will brighten their day in some way.  It’s like the Boy Scout slogan.  “Do a good turn daily.”  That’s a good slogan!

This week at men’s Bible study this week we were looking at Matthew 25.  And the last story there gives us another twist on this idea.  It’s the story about the Lord separating the sheep from the goats in God’s kingdom.  That’s where the master will say to the sheep, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and imprisoned and you came to me.”  You remember that story.  And remember, the sheep did not say, “We sure did!”  No, they said, “When?”  “When did we do all those things for you?”  And the answer was, of course, “When you did them unto the least of these, my brethren.”

And I was wondering this week if Jesus could have extended that list for us.  “I was having a bad day.  My family was falling apart.  I was in deep financial trouble.  I was lost with no direction.  I felt like I had no friends in the world.”  Would Jesus have said those things if he could?  I think you know the answer to that!  And notice that Jesus turned that idea around – as he often did!  He asked his listeners to think, not that they were him reaching out to the least, but that they were reaching out to the least as if he were the least!  Do you see how that works?

So we strive to relate to people as Jesus would, and we do so as though we were reaching out to him.  That’s how we represent Jesus to others.  That’s how we are his ambassadors!  I would remind you of something I’ve said before, which I heard long ago.  That is, that at any one time, you might be the only “Jesus” another person ever knows.

So, “Whose bus are you driving?”  The answer to that question is we’re driving “God’s bus.”  We are his ambassadors!  And, if we asked “Whose name is on your bus?” – which is another title I was considering – the name on our bus is “Jesus.”  And yes, it’s in one-foot-tall letters!

So, at the risk of adding one more scripture to this sermon, I’ll end with Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians.  “So, whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:17)

Prayer

Eternal God, help us to be your ambassadors to a world that so needs to hear of your love and Grace.  Help us to step out of the spotlight and let your light shine through us.  May everything we do and say reflect positively on your kingdom, and give you glory.  For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.