Motorsports Ministries

• For those of you tuning into this episode, we want to first thank you for your continued support, and let you know that in the second half of this episode, will have a live in-service recording from one of Pastor Tim’s Motorsports Ministries Sunday Morning meetings for worship. Understanding that our listeners come from different faith communities and backgrounds, you have the option to stop listening now as you’ve already reviewed the majority of the content for this episode,, but also invite you to stick around and sample what a service is like track side. 

and much, much more!

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Gran Touring Motor Sports Podcast Break Fix, where we’re always fixing the break into something motor sports. The following episode is brought to you by S r o Motorsports America and their partners at a w s CrowdStrike, Fantech Pelli, and the Skip Barber Racing School. Be sure to follow all the racing action by visiting www.sromotorsports.com.

Or take a shortcut to Gtam america.us and be sure to follow them on social at Gt underscore America, on Twitter and Instagram at SRO Gtam America on Facebook and catch live coverage of the races on their YouTube channel at GT World in invariably on Sunday mornings, many of us joke that being at the track is like being at.

The Holy Trinity of duct tape, zip ties and petrol is how we do the sign of the cross. In reality, many of us forget that there are many motor sports complexes [00:01:00] that have churches onsite, and many others have chaplains in presence. And with us this weekend as part of SRO GT America. We’re delighted to be talking with Pastor Tim Stewart for Motor Sports Ministries about what he does here as part of the larger motor sports c.

So Tim, we wanna welcome you to Break Fix, to tell us a little bit about what Motor Sports Ministries is and how you got involved in all this. Oh, wow. Yeah, that’s a good story. I’m an old redneck stock car guy. I mean that in a wonderful sort of way. I’m from Bristol, 220 miles due west of where we’re sitting in southwest Virginia, Bristol Motor Speedway.

Was, uh, built in like 1960 and my dad came home from work one night and he tell me, bud said, bud, you wanna go to that race out at the speedway, this coming sunny? I said, well, yeah. And so we went and I got hooked. We left that racetrack that day in 1960 and I had, I was a fan, forever of a hell named Richard Petty, and my daddy was a fan forever.

Of a fellow named Junior Johnson. Y’all remember Junior Johnson. And so it was [00:02:00] stock cars with a smattering of drag racing because five years later they built Bristol Dragway, which is where they’re having the N H R A nationals this very weekend. And then I would watch some sports car racing on tv, but again, this is back in the sixties and TV coverage of things, uh, was not what it is today.

Fast forward a bunch of years to 1994 and my wife and I. The summertime race in Daytona, it’s gone through different iterations of names. I still remember it as the Firecracker 400. We were there NASCAR’s called pit passes. We had scored pit passes somehow or the other, or garage passes as opposed to here where it’s paddock.

We went and it was hot. It was hotter than it. It was as hot as it was here two days ago. We were walking around in the garage area. We got some water sat down under this tent, and I was a fan of all things nascar, and I recognized a. Who was sitting at that table? Think he’s still with us. I’m not sure. Max Hilton and Max Hilton was the founding chaplain of M R O Motor Racing Outreach, which does the chaplain, uh, chapel [00:03:00] stuff in, in nascar.

And so I’m not a shy person. So I introduced myself and we chatted and he invited us to chapel the next day. Well, anybody could go to chapel, but he said, just come and see what we do. And so race weekend is over. My wife and I are driving back home. We live in Florida, so it was. Four hour drive. We are driving back home and I said, how in the world does one get a gig like that to marry two things.

I love being a minister of the gospel and being able to do ministry with people and motorsports. 1994. Fast forward to 20 19, 25 years later. I was at Seabring, that’s kind of my home track. It’s only an hour and 20 minutes away. And so I was at Seabring for the 12 hour and I went down to the Motorsports ministry’s tent where they have a silent auction that, that’s a big fundraiser for us every year, every non covid year.

And so I went down there to see Terry Borella back up just a little bit to 2001. There was a man in our church. Uh, I was the pastor of a believe it or not. Store Presbyterian Church in Punta Goda, Florida, and two of our members were [00:04:00] Charlie and Anne Ewood. People listening to this podcast will be familiar with the Ewood name, Charlie and Anne.

They had two sons. One son is named Terry Ewood, who is name is ubiquitous Throughout. The motorsports world, not just sports car racing. And then Steve Ewood, Terry’s brother Steve, owns the Rockingham North Carolina drag strip. And so Charlie invited me to Seabring in 2001. He said, come over as my guest.

And I had, you know, stuff to wear around my neck and could go anywhere. It was brand new to me. I mean, I was a virgin and I was just looking at stuff and I saw the baddest looking race car I’d ever seen in. The number 26 Celine S seven R, driven by Franz Conrad and Oliver Gavin and Terry Borcheller. And so when I went back up to Charlie to see him throughout the day, I told him about that car and he said one of the drivers is a fellow named Terry Borcheller, and he’s a very devouted Christian.

And I said, well, this is cool. I have a favorite car and a favorite driver. And so I was a fan of that car out of that driver. Fast forward to [00:05:00] 2000. I went over for Thursday night practice. I enjoyed doing that. I’d drive over and drive back. Uh, like I said, it wasn’t a long drive and it was kind of rainy and I had an umbrella and I saw the number 63, uh, Simco, Celine that Terry was driving and they were aiming the headlights or something like that.

And Terry was walking around and I walked up to him and maybe he stopped and chatted with me because I had an umbrella and it was raining and he didn’t have an umbrella, but not really. He’s a nice. And I introduced myself and we met each other. Then 2004, in 2007, he preached at a Saturday night worship service at the church.

I served in Punta Goda and our fandom became an acquaintance, which became a friendship. And of course, we were all along brothers in Christ without even knowing each other because that’s the way the Christian family works. And so I would, uh, see you in chat with Terry from time to time about stuff back to 2019 Seabring.

I walked down to the tent to see, Terry gave him a hug. How you. He asked me, what are you retiring? I said, well, I’m not exactly sure, but it’s coming up pretty quickly. Why? [00:06:00] And he said, I want you to come and be a chaplain with Motor Sports Ministries. And I said, can we talk about that and what do we do next?

And so we’ve carved out some time. The what do we do next is, why don’t you go with me to a race and then you’ll do a race by yourself and see if it works out. In other words, see if you. And see if we like you. That’s life. And so we went to Watkins Glen in 2019. That’s where I met Tom Dyer. And there was a hurricane, well I can’t remember the name of that hurricane, Doreen.

I believe it was something like that. Yeah. It was bearing down on Florida. Terry’s flight on Sunday was canceled, so he had to fly out on Saturday. Well, we were gonna do chapel on Sunday. Terry said, I’ve gotta go home. You gotta take me to the airport cause I gotta get home. And it’s your baby. And I appreciated the trust.

Well, that meant a heck of a lot to me. I was gonna do chapel anyway, just because that was gonna be my maiden voyage and he would be there, et cetera, et cetera. And then the second race I did by myself, and that was at Road America. And [00:07:00] then of of course, uh, then 2020 Daytona was wonderful. And then I went to St.

Petersburg for our sro. And the GT four cars were on track and about 20 minutes into their session, the world stopped. The race was canceled, track went silent, and everybody go home. That’s not exactly the way they put it. We, we kept racing that year. So I did the covid year and I did 2021 and, and here I am now.

And so anyway, was God married those te you know, I told my sweet wife Karen, how does a person get a gig? Like, I guess just pray and be patient and it took God a while, you know, 25 years, but God made it happen. And here I am getting to do something that I love to do. Ministry and motor sports. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

So listeners, if you’ve been to many races, you’re probably familiar with the fact that at the opening ceremonies of many of the events, Especially the larger events, there’s always some sort of dedication by a pastor. Yeah. You look at things like Petite Lamonds or the Indy 500, or you know, the Daytona 500.

There’s always some [00:08:00] sort of short little service or blessing to the entire crowd, to the drivers, et cetera. Yeah. I’m assuming that’s just one of your responsibilities here at sro. So what do they have you doing throughout the weekend while you’re here? Let me say two things. One, we don’t. An invocation, a prayer at the beginning of our SRO races out on the racetrack.

We don’t do that. And two Motorsports Ministries is not a part of sro. The SRO is a gracious, gracious host for us, and they support us and they welcome us. I’m not in a position and neither is Motorsports ministry to say we’re gonna have an invocation before the start of each race. Who are we to say something like that?

And so we. Interestingly, there’s another sports car racing series in our great nation that does have an invocation before that. And I’ll go to another venue this summer as I did last year, and I will pray there will be the presentation of the colors and the Star Spangled Banner performed somehow or the other, either by instrumentally or someone will sing it.

[00:09:00] And then there will be an invocation and a prayer, and I was invited to do that in another venue and. Series in in our Great Nation. It’s a wonderful observation and a great question to which I don’t have an answer with respect to our SRO series because we don’t do that yet every single race. So let’s speak in generalities.

What does a Motorsports chap do? Yeah. Let’s say, you know, across all the different disciplines of motorsports, I’m sure you’re busy every weekend with different organizations at different tracks. So what are your responsibilities? Yeah, well, there’s some time at home doing stuff, and that’s preparing a chapel service, deciding what I want to do.

Then they’re logistical things that need to be done. Where and when is Chapel gonna be? We were fortunate this weekend, as I mentioned, I got to pray at the beginning of the driver’s meetings and And that’s where you, we talk. Yeah. Got to mention the when and the where and tell everybody about them, which was fantastic.

And then to advertise, uh, you know, a lot of people resist using that word with respect to things, uh, ecclesiastical things to do with the church, but it is advertising. If I know ahead of [00:10:00] time when, and. I can make these wonderful four color posters and put them out, and I only had one poster this time, and it’s between the men’s room and the women’s room over there.

Well, but that’s a good spot because everybody’s gonna see, so many of the fans are gonna see it now. That’s for the fan to reach out to them and let them know for the people on, on the inside, I mean the drivers and the crews and all that stuff. I have mentioned it, like I said, three times at driver’s.

But also we have this wonderful app. Do you have the S r o m Ma GT America app on your phone? And it’s wonderful because, and it’s free at the Apple Store, so I don’t think I’m giving away a, you know, a, a trade secret or anything, and you get all the notifications. You know, you see who’s in trouble and you get a picture of the penalty.

You know, Tim Stewart got a penalty for causing a red flag or something, and so I’d use it very judiciously, but I’ll take a, a jpeg of the poster that I’m gonna put out and make it the right size so it’ll fit into the window on that app and then send it out so everybody who receives all that other information receives a color poster of [00:11:00] when and where our chapel’s gonna be.

So that’s how I get the word out at the racetrack. To the racetrack. If I have posters to distribute, I’ll do that like on a Thursday night or early Friday morning and just walk around and meet people and talk to people. A lot of the ministry is personal, relational ministry to see with people, it’s neat, it’s gratifying to be asked out in the paddock when I’m walking around to pastor come in or Tim, I like Tim, it’s worked for 69 years, so I prefer Tim.

Tim come and pray with us and I love to do that. I’ll walk on the grid, you know, and I just look at drivers and give a thumbs up and say hi. You know, I don’t want to be in anybody’s way. I. They’re in their office, they’re working. And so I want to treat that in the right way. I pay attention at the race, and when the track goes silent, we either have a yellow flag or horse, a red flag, and so at that point I begin to focus my attention on the medical center.

Sidebar, I’m gonna try to see if my old bearcat scanner that I took to NASCAR races bring in here and let the fellas at the, uh, racing [00:12:00] electronics trailer see if I can listen to the race control. And that way I’ll know if there’s someone being transported to the medical center. But pretty much now, you know, you can see the lights, you know, it’s easy.

And so I go to the medical center and see if, uh, I’m wanted or. I was there three times yesterday because we had people who were take the obligatory ride over to the medical center. So I do that and again, it’s just a ministry of presence and being with people and making myself and what I do available.

You mentioned the advertising. Yeah. Uh, you advertise, you put it in the app, which means the general audience can see it if they have access to the app as well as the drivers. Cause you asked in the driver’s meeting, is there a separate service? The audience. Absolutely. Not. People with the company. No, no.

It’s one service for, and in fact on the uh, bottom of the poster, it says everyone is invited. It says it’s a non-denominational. I have a denominational affiliation. I prefer interdenominational service. But [00:13:00] everybody knows what we mean by non-denominational. And so yeah, that everybody’s invited.

Everybody’s invited. Going back to the medical center Yeah. Scenario that you painted there. Yep. For those that are unfamiliar with the Christian faith, To be there in case you need to do last rights or laying on of hands or anything like that. No, Protestants don’t do that. But we affirmed two sacraments in the Protestant church to only be real specific in our Presbyterian church.

And it’s, uh, the sacrament of baptism, whether it’s an infant or an adult. And the sacrament of Eucharist, holy communion. The Lords Supper, whatever language people want to use, that’s it. So we don’t have the unction at the end of life. We don’t do that. You know, I’m not burning on that. I’m just saying No, I just go to see if someone wants a prayer.

My boss, Terry Borcheller, told me, I’ve used this line a hundred times and it’s absolutely true. He said, Tim, if you go to the medical center and the drivers or the. R or is okay. All you’re gonna find is an angry driver. And you know he’s about [00:14:00] right. There’s someone I saw yesterday and I pulled out that story and the driver, and I said, so I called the driver by the driver’s first name and said, are you angry?

And the driver said, well, yeah, but I’m angry at what happened. I’m angry at whatever this driver meant by that. But then there are sometimes that I see someone who, and I’ll say, would you like to have a prayer? And, and so, yeah, absolutely. And so it’s that driver and. Praying before family has come in and the medical people, it’s very gratifying to see them fall silent.

Sometimes they will bow their heads and close their eyes. Not necessary, but they’ll do that. But in a, in other words, there is still some respect even in this day and age of clergy difficulties and clergy getting sideways with the law and with the law of God. You know, there’s still a, a wonderful respect that I see.

The church, not me, not Motor sports Ministry, not the Presbyterian Church, but the Church of Jesus Christ. And that’s a good thing. So Motor Sports Ministries itself is comprised of a collection of different clergy from different backgrounds [00:15:00] as well. Y yes and no. We have several different chaplains. Some are clergy and some are not.

I’m one of the few. Clergy Motorsports Ministries with the brainchild of the late Richard Anderson. Richard died a few years ago. Terry Bortel was a chaplain with Motorsports Ministries, and of course on the weekends he wore, to be cliche, he wore cap and a helmet. You know, he was a chaplain and he was also out there, you know, battling it out on the, on the racetrack.

And when Richard died, we have a board of directors. The decision was to ask Terry if Terry would consider if Terry would be the president of Motorsports Ministries, and he said, yes, of course. That’s a lot more obligation, but Terry wasn’t racing as much as he was in prior years. That’s the genesis and the current situation with Motorsports Ministries and it’s Motorsports Ministries.

Is Terry’s house in, in, in Vero Beach. So if there are other members of the clergy, priests, pastors, et cetera, that would be interested in doing what you did, you know, [00:16:00] combining their passions. Maybe they do have a background in Motorsport or they’re retired, you’re looking for something new to do. Are there opportunities to join up with Motor Sports Ministries, Eric, that’s above my pay level.

I don’t know the answer to that Certain. A call to or a communication with Terry Borella. So if people wanted to find out more about Motor Sports Ministries, do you all have like a social media or a website or anything like that where someone could go to find more information? No. Our website has been in the oven.

For many months now. And again, I don’t wanna veer outside my lane, but No. But no, we have a Facebook presence and we don’t do any other social media. Terry’s racing this weekend. My boss. Yeah. Terry’s driving the number 21, uh, Superf in GT four, and his co-driver is Nick Shanny. Yeah. Terry’s out there not right this minute.

But he’s out there on the racetrack. So you talk about your love for motorsports. Yeah. All the way down to stock car and drag racing. Yeah. Have you ever had any aspirations of being a [00:17:00] driver or is it just for the love of cars in general? That’s a good question. I had the privilege of doing Skip barber racing school twice.

I did the elementary school. What? The beginning school. And I did the advanced school. I did both of them on the high banks of the Daytona International Speedway. Our first school, we were able to use the full 24 hour course. When I went back for the second school, we were doing it at the same time that NASCAR was testing.

And so I can legitimately say, That. Yeah, I was driving a race car on track the same time Jeff Gordon was. But of course we are in the infield, just in the infield course and I’d be driving in the infield looking up on the high bank and there goes number 24, the rainbow car. And so, uh, I like to tell people that when my skid barber experience was all said and done, my instructors told me not to quit my day job.

No, I no aspirations because I don’t have the chops to do that. I don’t have the. I have the love, but I don’t have the gifts. But I, I have to admit that after finishing the Skip Barber school, I [00:18:00] live in Florida, so we don’t have a lot of twisty roads. But today, coming from the hotel to the racetrack, in the past three days doing that, I kind of look for apexes.

But the thing is, you can’t, you know, it’s talking about sting in your lane. You kind of gotta do that because there might be somebody coming the other way. But no, no aspirations, and I’m not a gearhead. I have a neat little Audi TT that has some aftermarket stuff under the hood. My wife bought that car for me and gave that car to me.

It’s an old Audi. It has been tweaked by a company called apr, you know, ap okay. It’s got some apr, it’s got a stage three kit, and uh, I, I can say those things. Mine makes 396 horsepower. She is a demonn and it’s wonder. I’m an old man and someone said, have you taken it to the racetrack for one of those track days?

No. Cause my car’s 18 years old. It’s a 2004 car and that means everything’s 18 years old to go to Seabring and to drive and to go down the alderman straight and no one’s gonna be driving that without the accelerator matted and go down from 16 to 17. And the race car drivers I talk to say no one has ever gotten turn 17.

Right. [00:19:00] Ever. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but imagine going into turn 17, it’s a right-hander, and the front suspension give way on that old car. Who knows what could happen. You know, the car has no rolled cage, no protective stuff. So no, no. That would not be wise on my part to do something like that.

So long answer to a short question, but I tend to do that. So you mentioned before your boss, Terry is here, he’s running as part of the SRO Motor Sports weekend. So he doesn’t have you turning wrenches in the paddock, huh? Oh. No, no. Since you brought it up many times before, what’s the connection to Audi?

What gets you excited about that? How did you get into that? I know how I got into Audi’s growing up in a VW Porsche, Audi family, and watching Group B rally and things like that as a kid. So where’s your connection? You know, that’s a, that’s a good question. When Audi’s were ruling the roost, Alan Mc. And Ddo Capella and Mr.

Lamar, Tom Christensen. Yeah. Back in those days I was kind of thinking, man, this, this car wins everything. You know, kinda like the Green [00:20:00] Bay Packers won everything and the Jeff Gordon wins everything. You know, there’s sometimes a kind of animus that can be built up against that. But then I don’t know exactly what the deal was except that we bought an Audi, we used to have just two door cars, and so we bought an adult.

And it was an Acura and we sold that to our child and bought an an Audi an A six, and it was a 2014. We didn’t buy it new. But anyway, so I became an Audi owner. So that probably was it. And then there’s this place in in Port Charlotte, Florida called Avenue Garage. They’re the best in the world, and that’s where we have had our cars serviced for 15 years, maybe 20 years.

And the owner. Drove this amazing black Audi TT coop, not a convertible. I’m not a convertible guy. And every time I’d go, I’d say, is that all broke down Audi for sale yet? And he would always say, no, but this one time I went to get my car serviced, I asked him that. He said, well, yeah. And so we talked about it.

Long story short, he said, make an offer. I did. I didn’t hear from him, so I [00:21:00] figured he had decided not to do it because he had added all that APR stuff. It was kind of his. I didn’t know that my wife had involved herself in the convers. And so on Christmas day 2012, we had guests at, you know, two or three o’clock or something and so I helped clean up, I was doing dishes and my wife went outside and she came back in and she said, Tim, can you come show me how to turn the Christmas lights on outside?

I remember saying, okay, sweetheart, I’ll, I’ll be right there. She remembers me saying so. That, can’t you see? I’m washing the dishes. She was probably right. Anyway, I went outside and in our driveway was that Audi with a big red bow, you know, like 18 inch bow on the windshield. She bought that car and gave it to me.

You know, it’s just, it just went from there. And then, so I watched races. I’m an Audi owner, so guess what? I’m an Audi and now Audi’s, you know, is. The sports car world. I understand. I’m not talking about the LMD H stuff and all that kind of thing, [00:22:00] supercars and whatever. I’m talking about GT cars and of course we don’t have any, we have a few.

There’s Tom, you know, car number nine 30, big Audi found Hawaii. We’re members of this little Audi club in, in our part of the world. And, and go to Audi, Audi dealerships and get a swag bag and, and some information about new cars that are coming out. Okay? So if you could be a chaplain at any. For the weekend, spend the weekend at any, any of these amazing tracks that we’ve got around the world.

Where would you do service? You know, that’s a wonderful question. I’m the most boring person in the world. Just ask my wife, we’ll do something. She said, well, you’re no fun. I say, sweetheart, I told you that 30 years ago. My needs are so easily met. But the bucket list, the real aunt should be something like Spa or Lamar or the Nu Ring.

I’m way too open with people. I have a fear of flying. There’s not a chance in this world I’d get on an airplane and fly across the ocean, and that’s a horrible thing for a person of faith to admit shame on me. [00:23:00] But flying, you know, my wife will say, you know, when it’s coming up on a race weekend and I’m packing, she’ll say, you excited about going?

I’ll say, no. I’m not excited about going or coming, but I’m excited as heck about being there. So, My need is my bucket list. Need is met. You know what my bucket list would be? I’ll tell you what it would be. It would be to have this room full of people for a chapel service. That’s it right there.

Irrespective of the venue to have a room full of people for a chapel service. That would be the coolest thing. It’s not about numbers. I don’t mean to imply that, but it would be cool. Well, on that note, pastor Tim, it has been an absolute pleasure to. This side of motorsports sometimes overlooked, but it’s part of the larger ecosystem here.

Sometimes, you know the big Ru Goldberg machine that makes these weekends successful, right? There’s so many different pieces and facets to the Motorsport weekend, and you’re one of those, and that’s why we wanted to talk to you about your corner of the motorsports world, what you’re doing with Motorsports Ministries, and we can’t thank you enough for coming on the show.

Oh, it’s been a pleasure. [00:24:00] Yeah, an absolute pleasure. Thank you. This was fun. Thank you.

For those of you still tuned into this episode. We want to first thank you for your continued support and let you know that in the second half of this episode we have a live. In service recording from one of Pastor Tim’s Motor Sports Ministries, Sunday morning meetings for worship. Understanding that our listeners come from different faith communities and backgrounds.

You have the option to stop listening now as you’ve already reviewed the majority of the content for this episode. But we also invite you to stick around and sample what a Sunday service is like. Trackside. Please note that the service will commence momentarily.

Good morning. Good morning. Clock is not ticking yet [00:25:00] and so what I normally do, well, of course it doesn’t matter. Got a mic on. I sit out here with the folks. You know, it’s if we had a room full of people. Remember the old churches that had that wooden rail across the, before the, the front pew? Remember that that was called a privacy rail, and so people kinda liked it.

Yeah, they thought it was a kneeling rail. Oh, no, no, no. It’s, it is just a, it’s like a fence. Like a wall. Like a wall, yeah. And then behind that is a kneeling rail, of course, at every pew at every row. You know, when we orain and install people in our church’s officers, if they’ve never been ordained before, they kneel and we lay on hands and pray over them.

And I tell ’em, I said, you know, if your doctor says you have no business kneeling, Don’t do it, but if you do want to kneel, we got some people here to help you get you back up. Non-linear digital audio editing, right? Is that what it’s called? So you can put it all, yeah. Remember the days before that when you had to, actually no.

Your guys are too young. People had to cut tape and, and, yeah. Yes, it is. [00:26:00] This may be us, but that’s okay. Let’s have a prayer. Gracious Lord, thank you for this gorgeous day. Holy smokes. What happened overnight? It’s, uh, not chilly, but uh, comparatively speaking it is. But we thank you for that. What a, a breath of fresh air.

So be with the folks at a, oh God, as we enjoy ourselves, we have people here who are spectators coming for fun, and we have people whose business this is and everything in. So I pray that you would protect anyone, oh God, who is here for whatever reason. Hey, we have a good time. Good fellowship. May, uh, people meet other people whom they’ve not met before and, and begin at least an acquaintance who knows, maybe even things like that will blossom into a friendship and that’s a good thing.

Oh, thank you for the opportunity to set apart a few minutes and, and have a Christian chapel service. Thank you. Oh God. Thank you for the fellows, oh God, who are here to help promote GT racing and even this particular flavor of GT racing that we’re doing this. Bless us and keep us. Oh Lord. Cause your face to smile on us.

In Christ’s name we pray. Amen. Are you guys gonna stay for a communion? Uh, we have to. If you [00:27:00] have time. So the answer is yes if you have time. All right, then let, let’s get her going. I wanted to do just a devotion that had relativity with respect to communion. There’s a great story. Think back to Easter Day.

Jesus has been raised from the dead and. People are excited and some people have actually seen him on all that sort of thing. Sometimes we read scripture and just let the scripture speak to us without having to say a whole lot about it. I may say a thing or two, but listen to this wonderful story from the Gospel of Luke.

It’s the story of the pilgrims on the road to a maus, and so here, listen to the word of the Lord. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men en clothed that gleamed like lightning stood beside them in their fright. The women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men centered them. Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still with [00:28:00] you in Galilee?

The son of man must be delivered over to the hands of the sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again. Ah. Then they remembered his words when they came back from the tomb. They told all these things to the 11 disciples. 11. I thought they were 12. Yeah, Judas is dead. That’s exactly right.

Judas is dead. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, the mother of James and the others with him who told this to the apostles, but they, the apostles didn’t believe the women imagine that because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Imagine that Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb, bending over.

He saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away wondering to himself, what in the world has. Now on that same day, this is still Easter day. Uh, two of them. Now, we’re not talking about two of Jesus 11 disciples. We’re just talking about two other followers. Two, were going to a village called ESUs, which is about seven miles from Jerusalem.

They’re walking seven miles. They’ve been in Jerusalem and they’re walking home. Okay? They were talking with each other about everything that had [00:29:00] happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with. But they were kept from recognizing him. If Jesus were a southern boy, like am, he’d say, Hey, y’all wait up a minute.

And so Jesus caught up with him and walked, but they didn’t know who he was. Interestingly, the scripture says they were kept. From recognizing him. Some will say that it was the Lord God who was keeping them from recognizing him until the right time. Some say just in their grief that sort of clouded their understanding and they were just so burdened with grief that they were kept from recognizing him.

Because of that, I go with the former, frankly, Jesus asked them, what are you discussing? A as you walk? And they stopped dead in their tracks. Their face is downcast. One of them named Cleopas asked him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened in these last days?

What things Jesus asked Jesus is just, you know, set in the hook. What things Jesus asked about Jesus of [00:30:00] Nazareth, they replied he was a prophet, powerful in Word indeed before God. And all the people, the chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.

And what is more, it’s the third day since all of this took place. What’s important about. Jesus had said, you know, destroy this temple and three days later, and so they knew something about three days, but it’s been three days. It’s Sunday, it’s Easter Sunday. To their knowledge, nothing has happened because they weren’t, you know, a part of the people in Jerusalem who were able to witness the Lord.

They continue. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and founded just as the women had said, but they did not find Jesus.

The companions were, of course, Peter and John. And John talks about in his gospel about running toward the tomb. Peter set out [00:31:00] first and John followed, and John got to the tomb. Remember what he did? He bent down and he looked in. But Peter, the impetuous one, when he finally got to the tomb, he went right.

Right inside and looked around. You know, that’s a, that’s just a great story. Finally, after hearing all of this, Jesus said to them, how foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, in other words, all the way back through the Old Testament, Jesus explained to these two what was said and all the scriptures concerning him.

The seven miles are about up. And as they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as though he were going further. And so they said, wait, stay with us for its nearly evening. The day is almost over. So Jesus went into their house to be with them. You know these two men on the road to AMA, or two people on the road to Emmaus.

We know one of them has a [00:32:00] name and it’s Cleopas and that’s a male name. The other person’s not named. A lot of people think these are two fellas. I don’t, I think it’s a husband and wife because they go into the house where they live. Not, not to say that, you know, people of the same sex can’t, you know, share a house, but I think their husband and.

Plus they don’t mention the other person’s name. And of course, in this day and age, a woman was not the same status as a male. And so that for my money, Cleopas and his wife are the ones who were joined up, uh, by Jesus. And they said, come on inside. And Jesus went in with them. When he was at the table with them.

So they did what you did in that part of the world and that you fed someone a meal. Yeah. Now listen to this. What’s this sound like? When he was at table with them? They’re just eating. He’s had two new acquaintances house and they’re just eating. He took bread. He gave thanks. He broke it, and he began to give it to them.

What’s that sound? Communion sounds exactly like the words that you hear, that we all hear, [00:33:00] or some of us get to speak in a worship service and we’ll hear it in a few minutes. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and then he disappeared from their sight. Interesting choice of words. It doesn’t say that he got up and excused himself and said, see y’all later.

I gotta. He disappeared from their sight. Now remember, this is the Risen Lord, and it was an interesting existence. There are books about all of this that won’t try to bore you with anything, but Jesus has his heavenly body after the resurrection. But of course, he hung around because the ascension wasn’t for 40 days.

And so for 40 days, Jesus was walking around in this interesting brand new body. Did the scripture say, we will receive one of these days? Anyway, he disappeared and they asked each other. We’re not our hearts burning within us. You know, burning in the Bible sometimes is not a good thing, but sometimes it is a good thing.

Like a passion, a good sort of passion. This is a good one. We’re not our hearts burning within us. [00:34:00] While he talked with us on the road and did what and opened the scriptures to us, weren’t our hearts burning when we heard the voice of the Lord and when he opened the scriptures to us, they got up and returned it once to Jerusalem.

How far is that? Seven miles. They’d walked seven miles home. They had this amazing experience, which I would imagine was a fairly energizing experience. And they’d say, we gotta go. We gotta go back and and, and be a part of all of this and share our story and hear the other people’s stories There they found the 11.

And those with them assembled together and saying, it’s true. The Lord Jesus has risen and he has appeared to Peter. Then the two told what had happened on the way to a Emmaus and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke bread with them. You know, that’s a great story. Doesn’t need a lot of attention and a lot of, you know, it doesn’t need me to explain it at all.

That’s for darn sure. But there’s some things that we can take out of that. It certainly sounds like when Jesus took [00:35:00] bread and he blessed it and he broke it and he gave it to them, certainly sounds like communion. It wasn’t. It wasn’t, it was just a meal. But maybe Luke, when he wrote that, you know, fashioned it in a way who, you know, remember Luke wasn’t, wasn’t, it was his gospel.

He was writing this up, but he wasn’t standing there watching it. So he had to hear about it from someone. And so maybe he heard about it from Cleopas and his wife, uh, who knows. And then I think the salient part is when they said how our hearts burned within us when we heard his words. And you know, right now, today, and I’m, I’m not gonna talk about other people’s experiences, but I’ve never experienced the Lord speaking to me in an audible voice like you’re hearing my voice right now.

But people have said that and they claim that. And I affirm that God is God and God can do whatever God wants to do with respect to, you know, communicating with God’s people. You know, typically when I say to someone, well, the Lord spoke to me, I’m talking about a feeling that I feel in my. That I really feel the [00:36:00] power and presence of God’s spirit, the power and presence of the Spirit of Christ are prodding me.

I believe that with all my heart, but I’ve yet to hear a voice in my head. Like you said when we first walked in. Yeah. Pookie walked in the door and she called my name or something and she said she. Was afraid that I might think that was a voice in my head. No, it wasn’t. No it wasn’t. No it wasn’t. You know, this is one of the passages of scripture that people use to talk about a service of Christian worship.

I come from the Presbyterian tradition, which is a little more liturgical than some other traditions. That’s not a boast, it’s not a lament. It’s just the truth. And our worship service does have, dare I. Structure and the Presbyterian church, there’s a structure to the worship service and the structure is the gathering.

When people gather in the name of the Lord and you have things like a call to worship and an opening hymn, and an opening prayer, and a confession of sin and an assurance of pardon, that’s the gathering. And then a following. The gathering is the proclamation of the word. When scripture is read and pro.

Preached about, [00:37:00] and then there’s a response, and sometimes the response involves the celebration of the sacrament of holy communion, the celebration of the Eucharist, whatever words someone is familiar with. That’s what we’re talking about. If in a church tradition, like in mine, we don’t do communion every Sunday.

In some traditions, if you’re Roman Catholic or Episcopalian, or Luther’s communion is every Sunday, and I’d love to have it every Sunday. You know, you get some blow back because guess what? It takes a few minutes longer, et cetera, et cetera. After the proclaiming of the word, there’s a response to the word.

Sometimes it’s communion all the time. It’s usually that’s when we, uh, hear from people about what the mission work of our church is. You know, like a moment for mission. Sometimes you’ll see that in the printed bulletin, and of course, the offering is received during that time as well. A response to God’s word.

And then we have a prayer and then we sing. And then the last part, some people call it the. I prefer the sending dismissal says, we’re done. Y’all go home. Now sending says, go and do. Go and put into practice out there [00:38:00] in the world what you feel you should do as a result of our fellowship together and our time spent listening to the voice of Jesus, metaphorically, or maybe literally, or certainly listening to God’s word and then we go home.

So that’s what I wanted to share this morning. Just a devotion that kind of ha relates to the sacrament to communion. And I want us to focus on do our hearts burn within us when we hear the voice of the Lord and when scripture is opened. To us, when I say open to to us, I don’t mean it has to be interpreted by some clergy person.

I mean, when we read scripture on our own and do our own devotion, when we read God’s word, does it speak to us? You know, that’s what Jesus was talking about, and that’s what those two pilgrims were talking about. Didn’t our hearts burn within us when he spoke to us and when he opened the scriptures to us?

That’s the thought I want you to carry with. Today. It would’ve been better to put this day before yesterday because it was so blasted hot [00:39:00] outside. But anyway, if you get cold today, think about your heart burning within you because of the words of the Lord. All righty, let’s have it now. Is everyone gonna stay for communion?

You’re cordially invited. As I said at the driver’s meeting, in my tradition, anyone who is a believer is invited to the table of the Lord, and so I know that different faith communities understand communion differently, and I certainly don’t want this to be off-putting to anyone, but it is a Protestant communion service and anyone who is a believer is invited.

And some of these words may be familiar to you. I, I don’t know. I want you to know that. Oh, lemme show you something. Half a dozen years ago, church supply places came out with something new and we clergy thought it was the silliest thing we had ever seen in our lives. And it’s a kit. You ever seen one of these?

It’s a communion kit, and at the very top is a clear plastic thingy that you peel back and expose the wafer. And then when it’s time for the cup, you peel this little purple tab back. Be careful because you know you can [00:40:00] spill it and that’s the cup we thought. Who, when the heck would ever use something like that?

And don’t you wish you had bought stock in that? But then along comes Covid 19 and churches bought ’em by the truckload because they really work nicely and they’re sanitary. And I want you to know also that in my tradition and and this morning, the beverage that’s in there is in fact grape juice. And that’s important because if someone came expecting grape juices and it was wine and he or she was in a situation of life where that’s not a cool thing, that would not be a cool thing.

All right. And we’re gonna do a very short, eucharistic prayer. I don’t know if you know the responses or not, but in a church when, when the person up front says the Lord be with you. And also a thank you. Okay. How about do we go a little further? Uh, lift up your hearts. Oh, you are so good. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Oh. So let’s pray. Blessed are you, oh Lord, our God. You come with power to save us destroying the works of the wicked. So we praise you. Joining the song of the Universal [00:41:00] Church in the Heavenly Choir, when we say together, holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of power, and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest blessed as Jesus Christ our savior. Jesus fed the hungry, cast out demons, healed the sick, liberated the oppressed, and extended your grace to all people. Remembering your goodness in grace, we offer ourselves to you with gratitude as we share this. Joyful feast for great is the mystery of faith That Christ has died.

Christ has risen. Christ will come again. So pour out your Holy Spirit upon us and upon this bread and cup. Make us one in the body and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. Teach us truly to love our neighbors, honor every person and tend to the needs of all through the Lord Jesus Christ, the unity of the Spirit.

We bless you, God of glory now and forever. So as our savior has taught us, hear us says together we pray that familiar prayer, our Father who aren’t in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom. Thy will be [00:42:00] done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us, our debt says we forgive our debtors.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For th is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. You’ve heard the words a hundred times a year. Mm-hmm. On the night that Jesus was arrested and betrayed in scripture, we read that he took bread, and after giving thanks to the father for it, he broke it and he distributed it to his disciples and he said, this is my body given for you.

This is my body broken for you. Take. And to eat. And then we read that during that meal that they shared together, Jesus poured a brand new cup and gave it a brand new name, and he said, this is the cup of the new covenant sealed in my blood for the forgiveness of sins. All of you. Jesus said, all of you drink of it.

For as long as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he returns sisters and brothers, the gifts of [00:43:00] God for the people of God. You may go ahead and take the bread in the cup when you’re served. We don’t have to wait till everyone is served. Be careful the little, uh, clear one on top.

You peel back and expose the wafer. Like I mentioned, the purple one. You peel back and expose the. Jesus said, I’m the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry. Whoever trusts in me will never be thirsty. The bread of life. Amen. Jesus said, I’m the vine and you are the branches, but if you cut yourself off from me, then you can do nothing.

The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation, and let’s pray. God of glory in this meal that you have made for us, you have made us one with Christ and with that great multitude of the faithful, those who hunger and thirst, no more and worship night and day in your temple, we are also one with them. Lead us in the paths of righteousness and guide us to the springs of the water of life.

Until we join the choir of the redeemed, singing salvation belongs to our God who was seated on the throne and to the lamb. Jesus [00:44:00] Christ, our Lord. We forgot to pray for Dominic. Dark weather had a crash yesterday in the, in the GT four race. Yeah. Went into the tire wall and tour in the Super. That’s right.

That’s right. And I saw him in the, uh, medical center yesterday. And then, uh, I saw the three, Samantha Tan and Sada, is that his name? The Farry guy. And I can’t remember who was driving the 93. I don’t know if it was her or, Okay. Okay. Yeah. And they were in and out of the care center. So, uh, y’all be careful out there.

Don’t let anyone hit you and don’t hit anybody else. Mess up the pretty audio. That’s, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. If we were in church, you would hear the person say like they did in the New Testament times before they left that upper room. They did what together? They sang a hymn. We’re not gonna do that, okay?

But go in peace. Serve the Lord, enjoy your day. Go fast and stay safe again. I’m an Audi guy. I’m an Audi guy, so I should be a non partial, you know? But go Audi and you all stay safe [00:45:00] out there and God has blessed you with a cooler day. That’s wonder. It’s only gonna be 140 in the car today and No problem.

No problem. God bless you all. And I’m Tim Stewart and I represent that, which I believe I am privileged to do it through motorsports ministry. Thank you all. Thank you for coming this morning. Thank you. This is wonderful. Yeah. And what time is 8 24? Yes. Yeah.

Take care, man. All right. Go Audi.

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