Success Through Failure -- FPC sermon excerpt

There’s a funny thing about perfection. It requires a lot of mistakes.

Think about the light bulb. The suspension bridge. The iPod battery. In each case, the identification and elimination of design flaws led to better and better versions.

Henry Petroski, a professor of history and civil engineering at Duke University, has written a book called “Success Through Failure.” He makes the case that mistakes are not failures that should be avoided at all costs. Instead, they are fundamental clues to the ideal.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State was the third longest suspension bridge in the world when it was completed in 1940. But it had too narrow and shallow a deck, and it collapsed just months after it was opened to traffic. A relatively unknown engineer had warned against the excessive narrowness of the deck, but his objections were overcome by the pride of the bridge’s successful designer.

Today, everyone knows not to make bridge decks too narrow or too shallow. And this is a lesson that could only be learned through failure.

In the world of engineering, mistakes are the engine that drives successful design. And I would argue that the same is true in our Christian faith. In Luke 2:41-52, Jesus is accidentally left behind in the temple when he is twelve years old. This looks like a big mistake, and it would be considered a nightmare for most families of young children. But this failure leads to a fundamental clue to his true identity — he is the Son of God, not just the son of Mary and Joseph. So, in the case of Jesus, the discovery of perfection requires that mistakes be made.

The Greater Generation -- FPC sermon excerpt

Great. Greater. Greatest.

When it comes to describing generations, we Americans tend to attach the adjective “Greatest” to the group of men and women who braved the Depression and won World War II.

Think G.I. Joe and Rosie the Riveter.

They were a tough and courageous generation, so there’s nothing wrong with calling them “The Greatest.” But how about a label for their children, the Baby Boomers?

Would you say “Great” … or even “Good”? Unfortunately, the adjectives that people so often attach to the Boomers are more along the lines of childish, selfish, noisy, and materialistic. Boomers are great, some will say — great at pitching a fit when the Starbucks barista botches their latte order.

But these insults are way off base. Boomers deserve credit for a whole range of positive changes in American life. Environmental protection. Improved race relations. Women’s liberation. Tolerance, openness, and equality — these are all legacies of the Baby Boom generation.

According to Leonard Steinhorn, a professor at American University, our country is far more open, inclusive, and equal than at any time in our history, and he gives Boomers credit for these positive changes. The title of his new book says it all: the Baby Boom is, in his opinion, "The Greater Generation."

With regard to women, he writes that “the Baby Boom era has been one of breathtaking change — in a single generation, American women have effected one of the greatest social metamorphoses in recorded history.”

Of course, the women of the Baby Boom were not the first generation to experience breathtaking change. Open the pages of the Bible, and you will find women in both the Old Testament and the New who shattered traditional expectations and moved with the power of God into a new and more faithful future. Look at the story of Ruth in the Old Testament, and Mary in the New.

They were the Boomers of their era. And both were part of a Greater Generation.

Body & Soul -- USA TODAY, December 4, 2006

One Sunday morning in early October, a crowd of 250 gathered in a high school gym in Evansville, Ind., for an interfaith worship service. The CenterPoint Community Church provided praise songs, prayers and a short sermon. When the service ended, participants went out and ran a half-marathon, 13.1 miles.

Not your typical after-church activity.

Such services are a wake-up call for religious people whose focus on the soul causes them to see the flesh as something less important — sometimes even totally depraved. This dualistic view splits the soul from the body, and it is, surprisingly, more closely linked to Greek philosophy than to Judeo-Christian teachings. But a broad-based movement is emerging that wants to reclaim the ancient biblical truth that spirituality involves more than just the spirit — it also includes the body.

Links are now being made between faith and fitness, in churches and synagogues, karate schools and yoga studios. Across the USA, congregations are building full-service fitness facilities, expanding the approach pioneered byYMCAs and JCCs (Jewish Community Centers). Church-based sports programs are on the rise, leading congregations of all sizes to add gym facilities, weight rooms and other recreational equipment.

Connecting religion to exercise isn't just a matter of faith. It's a lifesaving step, especially in light of our country's obesity epidemic and the incorrect assumption that spirituality is limited to the spirit.

“When we consider our personal relationship with God and each other, we often over-spiritualize it,” says Brad Bloom, publisher of Faith & Fitness Magazine, based in Spencer, Ind. But vital relationships with God and neighbor require us to maintain the health of our bodies, too. A mistake we've made in religious circles is to define “salvation” entirely in terms of life after death, when in fact the word can describe health and wholeness in life on earth as well.

We clergy are among the worst role models when it comes to physical fitness. A 2001 national survey of more than 3,000 religious leaders, conducted by the Pulpit and Pew project at Duke Divinity School, found that 76% of Christian clergy are either overweight or obese (compared with 61% of the general population). Treatments of back problems and high blood pressure have been the top claims paid by the Southern Baptist Convention's health insurance program in recent years — ailments often resulting from obesity or a sedentary lifestyle.

Obesity also presents a credibility problem for pastors who stand in front of their congregations and preach on biblical verses such as the command to “glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20). Recognizing this incongruity, I accepted the challenge of a friend — a Catholic priest — to join him in running the Marine Corps Marathon soon after my 40th birthday in 2000. I hadn't been a runner in high school and had avoided it pretty successfully in the ensuing years. But my friend convinced me that I could train for the race in six months, so I accepted his challenge and worked my way up to running the 26.2 miles.

In the years since, my marathon training has become a running meditation for me, and I have been amazed by the clarity of thought — along with the occasional agony of the body — that I experience during workouts. Long runs with members of my church have led to some intimate conversations, and I have found myself growing closer to these men and women through the pursuit of shared athletic goals.

My friend Vik Khanna, an exercise specialist certified by the American College of Sports Medicine, has teamed up with me to develop a program called “Ten Commandments of Faith and Fitness.” We've been meeting with 40 church members in monthly sessions since January, encouraging activities that will improve participants' spiritual and physical fitness. One class member recently reported with pride that she completed her first 100-mile bicycle race, and she told us that church friends working toward similar goals have been “a good source of support.”

The union of body and spirit carries with it the promise of integrity — that is, the bringing together of different parts into a unified whole. The root of the word religion is the Latin religare, which means “bind together,” reflecting a deep desire to have the various strands of life tied together. Most of us want to be complete and undivided, enjoying integrity as physical, emotional, moral, intellectual, sexual and spiritual creatures.

We can move closer to a life of integrity by pursuing health and wholeness in weekend worship and weekday workouts. The path to spiritual and physical fitness begins with a single step — or, in my case, six months of preparation for the Marine Corps Marathon.