AIDS Lifecycle Sermon

I have preached a sermon based on the AIDS Lifecycle event every time I have participated. This is the 12th sermon (and 9th annual) in the series.

Preached Sunday  June 17, 2012 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church Sacramento.

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

Psalm 20

2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17

Mark 4:26-34

Today is my nearly annual AIDS Lifecycle sermon.  This year was my 12^th time participating in the event.  This year I was, once again, a roadie or volunteer crewmember on the Ride.  For me, and for many others, there is more to this event than just a bike riding fundraiser where people clad in way too much shiny spandex ride their bikes from San Francisco to Los Angeles.  It is greater than the sum of all of the work the Roadies do to support the ride.  It is, in short, a little piece of heaven on earth where seemingly small things can have big impacts.  Where mustard seeds can grow into great trees.

This year we had 2250 riders and about 550 Roadies.  The riders are required to raise at least $3000 dollars to be able to ride.  The Roadies are not required to fundraise but many of us do.  In fact this year the roadies, many of whom work 14-hour days on the ride raised about a half a million dollars.  In all the ride raised an amazing $12.6 million dollars.  This is an incredible sum that supports the work of AIDS prevention and direct AIDS services through the San Francisco AIDS foundation and the L.A. Gay and Lesbian center and its Jeffrey Goodman Special Care Clinic.  This is money that will keep people alive when they have no place to turn.  This is money that can be used to fund outreach into at risk communities with no strings attached.  Where outreach coordinators can have frank talks with at risk people without worrying about someone getting upset that they are using tax payer dollars to promote safe activities including condom use and needle exchanges.  The money on this ride simply saves lives.  But is does more.  Much more.

This year we had riders who ranged in age from 18 to 83 from nearly every state and from 16 countries.  The faces of the riders and roadies were an amazingly diverse group of people.  As one speaker said we have skinny people and not so skinny people on the ride, we have gay and straight people on the ride - not that it is easy to tell the difference, - and on day five – also known as red dress day it is really hard to tell the orientation of all of the men and women in red – red dresses, red shirts – even the Cal Berkeley team who rode in red speedos! We have fit people and we have people with physical challenges.  But so much happens that reminds me that God is with us on the ride.  So many stories of amazing courage, strength and compassion that I could keep this sermon going for an hour or more – but don’t worry – I won’t.  

My typical day on the ride goes something like this.  Jon’s alarm goes off at 4:00 in the morning.  We get up, get dressed and are at breakfast by about 4:10.  For those of you sane people who don’t get up at that hour there is a very good reason we call it O dark hundred.  It is still very dark.  After breakfast we brush our teeth, pack out bags and take down the tent and haul it to our gear truck.  We then go to bike parking to get ready to greet the riders who are allowed to go to the bikes at 6:00.  The route opens to the riders most days at 6:30 (except that last day when everything – including time to get up – is 30 minutes earlier).  The bike parking Roadies make sure there is Gatorade and water available, pass out route cues, help make sure tires are pumped up and provide encouragement and hugs for the riders when needed.  The riders have to get on the road between 6:30 and 8:30.  At 8:30 we load the bikes of riders who are unable to ride that day onto a truck and take down the bike parking area and load our two truck and drive to the next camp.  Once at camp we set up bike parking – which consisted of 230 – 10 foot steel poles with metal “a” frames, welcome the riders to camp and once a row is filled scan the bikes into a rack using modified package tracking technology provided by UPS. Which proved to be a God send this year!

We had a great crew this year.  As has been the arrangement the last few years Jon and I acted as unofficial co-captains to Christine our official captain to help with the management of the crew.  We had 25 crew members on our crew.  They were all very hard workers.  One in particular had some birth defects that caused some physical issues but you would never know it on the ride. I dare say that some people probably would look at him - look at his physical body and prejudge his capabilities.  Let me tell you they would be wrong.  He was one of the hardest workers and relished in welcoming the riders to camp.  One evening his CPAP device broke down during the night so he couldn’t get enough air at night and was winded – even with the use of a less powerful loaner CPAP.  The next day he still put in almost a 14 hour day.  His mother and the ride made arrangements to get a replacement machine so he could keep going.  He put in very long hours and by the middle of the ride signed up to join us again next year in bike parking.

On day two we had a freak strong and cold rain storm on the route.  So strong and cold and unexpected that the riders started getting hypothermia and only about 800 of the nearly 2300 riders made it all the way to camp.  About 800 riders where stranded at the lunch stop and about 200 at the second rest stop when the event leaders called the ride due to dangerous conditions.  That meant that we had to bus the stranded riders into camp and transport over a thousand bikes.  At rest stop two a local Assembly of God church opened their doors to shelter the riders from the cold and rain.  The riders,  cold and wet, were grateful for the shelter.  During their time in the church they realized that they had, naturally, tracked in mud and dirt.  So they passed a bike helmet and raised $450 dollars to give to the church so they could hire a cleaning crew.  Instead the church asked if they could use the money to help with their homeless program.  The riders agreed so then as much as they could the riders cleaned the church on their way out as they caught the busses into camp.  

The bike parking crew worked that night to nearly 9:00 off loading and parking bikes form transport trucks.  Many many riders came out to help us park the bikes – perhaps hoping to see their bike so they would know when it was parked.  At about 8:30 the staff on the ride sent our crew to bed as the transport trucks headed back for another load – a nearly 2 and a half hour round trip.  The staff were up until about 3:00 in the morning parking bikes and scanning them.  At breakfast – starting at 4:00 in the morning there where printouts on the table with the rider numbers and the row numbers where the bikes where parked.  Ride out was nearly perfect because of the scanning technology.  We only had about 10 bikes or so that were not parked where the data base indicated and our crew worked with the riders to find those bikes so everyone got on the road in time.  Most of the bikes the data base indicated were parked in "Row 21" which I referred to as the Bermuda Triangle of bike parking!

There are probably thousands of stories of kindness and of why people ride on this event.  There are the people that the riders pass along the sides of the road cheering them on and thanking them for riding.  There are the coffee shops that provide free coffee to the riders – a welcome thing considering the quality of the so-called coffee at breakfast.  There is one woman who every year comes out with to wait by the side of the road to cheer the riders.  She stands there with simple sign.  It has a picture of her brother Gary – the dates 1950 to 1996 and the words thank you under the picture.  She comes out from Santa Cruz every year for at least the last 15 years or so to thank the riders.  (I remember her from teh first time I rode and she was profiled by the ride this year.)  Her brother contracted AIDS before the drug cocktail to extend life was available.  Standing beside the road cheering on the riders for over 6 hours provides her a safe place to remember her brother.  For her the ride offers a way to keep her brothers memory alive in a society that still today would rather not hear about people who died from AIDS.  She also provides much loved and needed encouragement to the riders as she stays on the side of the road until the last rider goes by.

This year closing ceremonies was changed up a bit.  The riders did not ride there bikes into closing ceremonies so they were able to hold it on the lawn with shade at the VA center in Los Angeles rather than on a hot asphalt parking lot.  At the beginning of the closing ceremony the Roadies were brought in right through the middle of the riders who welcome us with great cheers, tears and hugs of thank you.  Then we – the roadies- parted down the middle and a riderless bike is led down to the stage.  The bike is preceded by the dedication flags.  Flags that are available from orientation to the last night in camp for people to write memorials and dedication on why they ride or roadie.  This year the ceremony was perhaps more poignant than most.  As the positive peddlers group led the riderless bike in it was announced that this would be one of the members’ last rides.  He has pancreatic cancer and is not expected to survive until next year.  He chose to spend part of what may be his last year riding and raising money.  He chose to spend time with this wonderful community that gathers every year and provides a safe space.  A place where its ok to let people know if you are HIV positive or not.  Where it is OK to be gay, or straight, fit or not so fit, where it is ok to be young or old.  It is a community that celebrates life and God’s wonderful diverse creation with out judgment. It is a community where huge trees can grow from mustard seeds.  Where I see the unexpected grow out of the simplest acts.  The riderless bike ceremony ended with a twist this year.  At the end a young child of about 8 was put on the bike seat.  She symbolized what we all hope the ride will accomplish.  She symbolized a world without AIDS.  A world where we can gather to ride our bikes from San Francisco to Los Angeles in celebration of the end of the pandemic.  Perhaps we won’t be able to have that celebratory ride in the next few years.  But there is hope that the seeds that the ride plant and the work done around the world will find a way to end the pandemic.  That the young girl will grow up in a world where AIDS is just a memory. Are we delusional?  Perhaps.  In today's Sacramento Bee there was an article on the strides being made towards a cure.  But remember the parable of the mustard seed that we heard today.  From the smallest of seeds God can and does produce great trees.  From people riding their bikes and from the wonderful community that emerges you never know what God will create.

So you might have guessed by now that I am a ride junky.  Perhaps one of these years I will have the time and physical stamina to ride again.  But until then I will be working on the bike parking crew the first week of June every year.  Every year until we can celebrate the end of the pandemic of HIV/AIDS.  And perhaps the mustard seeds that are sown during the ride will also have the side effect of sowing love and compassion in this world.  Perhaps those seeds will help sow God’s loving reign in this hurt filled world and bring God’s kingdom to fruition in our world.

Amen.