Of Motorcycles and Men

I took a trip to the local Harley Davidson dealership today. Well, it really wasn't local, but I was close enough to it to justify spending the extra change on gas - so I went. I've wanted a motorcycle for years and (for reasons that I'm not sure I can explain) I have not yet purchased one. So, I went by the dealership and found the two models I really like. One is a smaller bike with a smaller price tag (if there is such a thing as a small price tag) and the other is a larger bike with a larger price tag. Money really isn't an issue when you're considering a motorcycle purchase, though. Not that I have more money than I know what to do with it, mind you. But a motorcycle purchase is in no way justifiable by any standard unless you're a single guy with no responsibility. So, the money isn't the issue. The issue is a man thing. Perhaps, it's not even a man thing as much as it is a freedom, control, rebel without a clue, wind in your hair kind of thing. (I fear if I don't hurry and purchase one I'll not have much hair for the wind to get in....)

Anyway, I'm standing in there with all of these motorcycles and all of the motorcycle dudes and dudettes and I'm feeling pretty out of place and I'm very self-conscious about the whole thing - you know, with me being a baptist preacher and everything. So this cool salesman approaches me and asks me how he can be of service and I tell him I'm in the market for a bike. I'm shopping around considering my options and all that kind of stuff and I wait for him to give me the sales pitch about why I should buy a Harley instead of a Yahmaha. Instead of the sales pitch, though, the guy just looks at me with his perfectly styled bed-head hair. It was really uncomfortable there for a minute. Then this guy surprised the fire out of me. He began to tell me how he had sold his salon - yes, he was a hair stylist! - and came to work for Harley Davidson. So he goes on about his personal journey to employment at Harley and shares his history of riding bikes and he closes his presentation with the assertion that buying a Harley is not at all about the motorcycle. It's about the people, he said.

Well, call me crazy, but I think the Harley salesman has some pretty good theology! What he was selling me was not a motorcycle. I can buy any kind of motorcycle I want. There may even be some better, mechanically more sound bikes than a Harley, but that's not what matters. What matters is the people. He was selling me community. All of the statistics scream that people in the 21st century are starving to death for relationship which is found in community with other people. Church is supposed to be first and foremost a community of Christ-followers. People united around a common goal / purpose and intent on helping one another experience that goal / purpose. In the same way that HOG's (short for Harley Owners Group) come together for the common goal of promoting the freedom of the open road and all that motorcycling involves, the church is for the Chrisitan. I started thinking on the way home from that experience that maybe if the church would emphasize community instead of trying to "sell" people on Jesus, then maybe people would experience Jesus and His love and they would just want to be a part of that.

I probably could have come up with some more comparisons on my trip home if I had been riding my new motorcycle. If a hairstylist can become a harley salesman, surely I baptist preacher can be a harley rider! I've just got to come up with a legitimate way to take up a love offering to pay for my bike!