First Presbyterian Church Carson City

Rev Bruce Kochsmeier

Purpose: For people to realize the need and benefit of and for preparing to continually grow in following Jesus Christ all the way to the finish line.

In May of 1971, 35 years ago last week I rode in my first motorcycle road race on a paved racetrack in Carlsbad, California. I’d never seen a road race before, but I knew I wanted to do it. I’d read about it. I’d watched movies. I’d talked to people about it, but I knew that wasn’t enough. I knew I had to participate. I realized as I circulated around Sears Point raceway this past week that you can take the boy out of the race but your can’t take the race out of the boy. So it is with our Christian journey. There comes a point we know we have to get out on the track and participate. Watching just doesn’t cut it!

If you know me at all you know how much I appreciate metaphors; how one part of life reflects another. And I know that many of you who so generously made it possible for me to attend motorcycle dream school this week want to know how it was. So if you’ll permit me I’d like to draw a line between these scriptures and the experience I had on the track.

When I was 17 I wanted very much to race motorcycles. It was a passion that stirred within me. I took it very seriously. I put myself under the tutelage and mentoring of two of the finest men the sport has known. I was blessed to have their willingness to help. I sought to learn all I could about what it takes to be a successful racer. I invested whatever I could afford of time and money to gain the ability to do well. More than for a trophy or acclaim, the perishable wreath Paul describes, I wanted to do well because at that point it felt like that’s what I was made for. To borrow from Eric Liddell’s words in “Chariots of Fire” I had a sense that God had given me an ability, and when I did it well I could feel his pleasure. My desire was that whatever success I had on the track would bring glory to God. As Christians this is our calling; that whatever we can be good at we should do it to our utmost for God’s highest; with a delight that when we are being whoever we are…a parent, a worker, a servant, a leader, a follower, it is all so that people may see Jesus Christ.

I suspect that this attitude lead me off the track and into preparation for ministry. But I’ve never let go of the connection between the ministry and motorcycling. My high school yearbook says I had two desires and in this order, “To win lives for Christ and to beat Dick Mann at Sears Point Raceway.” I never got to ride at Sears Point until this week. I have been blessed to become friends with Dick Mann, perhaps the greatest racer who ever lived. But most significantly I have been given the opportunity to show people on to the track of following Jesus Christ and how to run the only race that really matters.

Let me tell you how my time at motorcycle school reinforced this for me this week. First of all, it was a school. It wasn’t just, “Pay your money and go out on the track.” This was a time of learning what it really takes to perform at the best level. So it is with our Christian journey. It is not a “Do it yourself course”. To follow Jesus means to enroll in the school of Christian discipleship where we are instructed. In motorcycle school I was instructed by the best teacher there is, Reg Pridmore. He’s won national championships. He’s been teaching people how to get around the racetrack for 20 years. And he’s still faster in his 60’s around the track with someone on the back of his motorcycle than everyone else is riding solo.

Jesus is our teacher. He’s done more than win national championships; he’s overcome the world. And he is faster and better at LIFE with all of us on HIS BACK than any of us is on our own!

On Sunday evening when we arrived at the hotel that was headquarters for the school a flood of memories washed over me. It was like the first time I pulled into the pits at Carlsbad. There were some of the finest motorcycles I’ve ever seen, all perfectly prepared. And the following morning in the pits at Sears Point the riders were equally prepared and ready to learn. The first step in preparation for the class is to take the rear view mirrors off the motorcycle. Reg says, “You don’t need to see where you’ve been. You already know that. In fact you should look at the ground directly in front of you because you’re already passing it. Look beyond the turn to the next turn and be ready. You’ll get to the same turn again or one just like it and you’ll have a chance then to try it again. There is no point in looking back.” This is the primary step in being ready for the race. In faith and in racing motorcycles as in so much of the rest of life preparation is the key. We need to be ready. And the key to being ready is to be constantly learning.

I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about re-entering this chapter of life. I mean, I know I’m a safe rider, and reasonably capable on a mountain road, but this was Sears Point and the point was not an absent-minded Sunday ride in the country. This was serious business. But once I got signed in I knew I was where I belonged. The same is true in faith. Once we realize there is so much more to learn we will COMMIT ourselves to signing up and showing up to be trained in the Master’s classroom. And we will know we are where we belong.

We began in the classroom, not on the track. This is where Jesus started the disciples. It is where Jesus starts us. Worship is the classroom. Bible study is the classroom. Fellowship groups are the classroom and they are all essential to our being prepared to go with Jesus.

Once I sat down in the classroom and started listening it all started to come back, just like that first rider’s meeting in the pits at Carlsbad before the first practice session. And the first thing Reg told us was, “This is not a race school. It is not primarily about making you fast, though you’ll find at the end you are faster. This is about making you smooth and confident and the best way to learn this is to slow down to go fast.”

Does this make sense to you? It could be counter-intuitive I know. I know when you put 70 men (and four women) on a racetrack with high performance motorcycles the idea of going slow and letting the other guy go doesn’t work well at first. WE WANT TO WIN! WE DON’T WANT THAT OTHER GUY TO SHOW US HOW IT’S DONE!! The problem is that on the track and in life we too often have a size ten hand for turning the throttle and a size two head for learning what to do with what we’ve got. I was a victim of my own in this regard on Monday and I am in life. As much as I know as a Christian that I have to slow down to go fast; as much as I know I need to ride my ride, not someone else’s, I still want to get ahead NOW. I want to pass that guy even though I don’t know where he is going and I don’t know who he is and what abilities he has. What I needed to learn Monday is what I need to learn everyday and that is to follow the leader and ride/live the life Jesus has set before me. I need to choose to choose his way.

It is interesting in the opening session that one of the first rules that is gone over emphatically and that no one argues about; no one has a problem with anyone getting asked to leave the class for – and that is never try to go the opposite direction on the track! In faith we need to learn the same; that when the Master tells us the right direction we can’t question it for a second; we can’t say, “Well times have changed and there are exceptions.” If we said this in track school we’d laugh or take the guy’s keys away, but we’d never say, “Well maybe he’s got a point.” This is what Paul means when he says, “…I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.”

There is so much I could tell you about these passages and the connection to learning to ride a motorcycle and living the Christian life, but the key is learning that the learning never ends, that the learning is for living; that it is hard, but delightful, and that to do it well we each must ride the ride Jesus has set before us. Paul is not being inconsistent in saying that only one gets the prize in I Corinthians and then urging everyone to keep faithful because all who do receive God’s reward because it is in the participating in the race that we win in Christ. The discipline of which he speaks in I Corinthians is what qualifies us. It is when we give up that we lose. The key to Christian victory is in the on-going journey of faithfulness; running the race that each of us is called to run. We are not competing against one another but against the part of our spirit that says, “Quit”.

I know it’s hard. I’m out here living this life, running this race with you. I know that both days in school there were many times I thought, “This is too much all at once, I want to quit for today. But you know what was great? When I got up and rode one more circuit and realized I was getting it.

Let me take you to the finish line with this. Each day began with a session of following the instructor for a few laps and then we were turned loose. At first I kept trying to go too fast; to keep up with others rather riding the things I knew THAT I NEEDED TO WORK ON. But the second day in the morning after playing follow the leader I found myself with no riders around me for several laps and I started to slow down and ride the way I knew I needed to. And I started going faster! After awhile Derek, an instructor came around me and motioned for me to tag along behind him. I did and he would look back every few turns and give me a thumbs up. After the session he said, “You know what impressed me most about your riding? You look relaxed. You are riding your ride. Keep going.”

That’s what Jesus wants to do for you. He wants to come around you and have you tag along behind him. He wants to look back and give you the thumbs up. He wants you to be able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith, I have finished the race.” And he wants to say to you, “You looked really relaxed out there. You were riding the ride I created you to ride. Keep going.”

May we all continually run the race keeping our eyes on Jesus. And as the world challenges us to do it differently may we hear him saying to us, “Keep going, look beyond, the turn, don’t look back you’ve already been there, the prize is up ahead and riding with me is all the prize you need.” Amen.