If all of this sounds kind of vague and you’re like, “I don’t quite get what you’re talking about Alex,” trust me, I will make it clear as we go through. So today I want to begin with the story of a man named Glenn Cunningham, who was born in Kansas on August 4th, 1909. By the age of eight, Glenn and his brother were responsible for starting the stove each morning to warm his schoolhouse. The routine was to fill the furnace with kerosene, light the pilot and get the warm air circulating through the pipes.

Unfortunately, one day, someone had mistakenly filled the kerosene can with gasoline. His brother, Floyd, poured the gasoline into the stove, which still had burning embers from the night before. The gasoline ignited and the flame quickly went up the stream, exploding the can. The two boys were engulfed in flames. Glenn’s brother was killed in the explosion, whereas Glenn’s legs were so badly burned that the doctor recommended his legs be amputated because he wasn’t sure Glenn could survive the infection.

Glenn was in immense pain, but Glenn was so scared by the prospect of losing his legs that Glenn’s mother refused to allow the doctor to proceed. Thankfully, Glenn survived. He had lost all the flesh on his knees and shins and all the toes on his left foot. Also, his transverse arch was practically destroyed. Glenn’s legs were so badly damaged that the doctors said he would likely never be able to walk again.

Eventually, scar tissue formed all over his legs. If you know anything about burn victims, as scar tissue forms, the skin becomes rigged and stiff. Unlike normal skin that is very malleable and pliable, burned skin often prevents a full range of motion. One has to continually flex the scar tissue to get it to move, which can be an excruciatingly painful process.

After returning home from the hospital, Glenn was on his own. Glenn had heard the nurse say to his mother that he would be an invalid for the rest of his life. When Glenn saw his mother, he looked at her with steely determination and said, “I’m NOT going to be an invalid! That lady’s wrong.” Glenn’s mother gave him a kiss and said, “I know, Glenn. She’s wrong.” At first, Glenn couldn’t even stand on his own, but by Christmas Eve 1917, Glenn gave his mother a present by taking his first steps.
After being able to achieve a very wobbly walk, Glenn would drag himself out to the family’s split rail fence. He would grab hold of it to stand himself up and then spend hours, breaking down the scar tissue, forcing his legs to walk. In time, he discovered that running was far less painful than walking. As a result, Glenn began running all the time. Over the years, the scar tissue became less painful and Glenn had built up his cardiovascular strength to the point where he had incredible endurance.
Then at 12, he saw an advertisement in a drug store for a 1 mile track and field race. His father was against athletics, but Glenn entered anyways. Glenn was only in 4th grade, but he destroyed his competition. Even though Glenn’s father beat him for disobeying his commands, Glenn kept running. He became one of the top runners in America, eventually being recruited to Kansas University.
During his junior year, Glenn qualified for the 1932 Olympic team. Unfortunately, he became ill with infected tonsils and an inflamed throat and finished fourth in the 1,500-meters. During his senior year, Glenn established a new world record of 4:06.7 and had run seven of recorded history’s 13 fastest miles. After graduating from college, Glenn continued to run and began to pursue a Master’s Degree in physical education at the University of Iowa.

Glenn qualified for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Adolf Hitler showed up just in time to watch him compete in the 1,500-meter run. Even though Glenn beat the world record by four-tenths of a second, he was six-tenths of a second behind Jack Lovelock from New Zealand. Glenn Cunningham, a boy who was so badly burned that he would likely never walk again had taken home an Olympic silver medal in running.

Why have I told you this story? Well, when we think about great athletes, we often imagine people who are extraordinarily talented. They are blessed with the perfect genetics and drive that allow them to excel at whatever sport they pursue. But this is not the case with Glenn Cunningham. Glenn’s running career began from a place immense weakness. I think I can say with absolute certainty that following his accident, nobody would have imagined that Glenn would become an Olympic medalist in running.

His success was paradoxical. The idea that Glenn’s inability to walk would become the source of his ability to run makes no sense. And yet, his drive and power in running came out of his weakness. What most people don’t realize is that this idea that we derive power from our weakness is not just true for Glenn, it’s true for all of us. Indeed, this idea is fundamental to the Christian life—our weakness is where we find our greatest source of strength.

In our scripture from 1Corinthians, Paul is attempting to answer some of the questions from members of the Corinthian church about the Christian faith. One of the biggest stumbling blocks for members of the church is the idea that they are worshiping a messiah who was executed by the Roman government for treason. This would be like saying that we worship William Bruce Mumford, the only person in our country’s history to be executed for treason (he was hanged in 1862 for tearing down a United States flag during the American Civil War). It feels a little odd and Paul doesn’t deny that fact.

Paul talks about how the idea of a crucified messiah makes very little sense. When your messiah is dead, that doesn’t generally do anybody any good. However, through that death, Jesus was able to create his movement. What many would perceive as a weakness (being executed), becomes a strength (because it inspires his followers to walk in his footsteps and live by his example).
Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate is a great example of this. Rather than mounting a defense of his actions, he remains silent in the face of unjust charges. This would seem to be foolish. If you’re innocent, shouldn’t you proclaim your innocence? What good does it do to be killed for crimes you did not commit? However, it is from that place of weakness that Jesus’ followers will eventually find strength. Not only does Jesus’ execution becomes a symbol for our forgiveness, but Jesus teaches his disciples that not fighting back and being passive resistors is one of the best ways to become powerful.

It’s a flipped logic that a weakness creates strength. So Paul is trying to explain that even though Jesus was executed, God demonstrated power through that weakness. And I think this idea is really important as we enter in to Advent and anticipate Jesus’ birth on Christmas day. We as humans are always attempting to show how strong we are. We want people to fear us because of our strength. Pontius Pilate is a great example of this. With the stroke of a pen, he could sentence you to death. At his word, a dozen of the best trained soldiers in the world would torture you and end your life without a second thought.
That’s the kind of power we are taught to fear. And we are also taught that the only way to combat that power is with a force of strength that is equal to or greater than force of your enemy. In WWII, everything was equal until we dropped the atom bomb. The war ended rather swiftly after that. But Jesus calls this logic into question. What if love has the same potential as brute force to fight against evil? Although many scoff at such ideas, the baby who we are about to celebrate on December 25th embodies this very notion.

His entire life is a testament to the ability of love to conquer violence. Violence took his life, but love continues to keep his legacy alive 2000 years later. We remember the names of none of the soldiers responsible for beating and killing Jesus. In the moment, they were stronger than Jesus. But over time, they became nothing but mere artifacts in the larger story of his life. Over time, love rendered their momentary strength insufficient to conquer Jesus.

And so Jesus’ life teaches us what Glenn Cunningham discovered after his accident: the person who revels in their weakness will eventually find strength, while the person who only focuses on their strengths will eventually be overtaken by their weaknesses. The question I want to pose to you this morning is what is your weakness? What is that area of your life that you have avoided because you know it is something that holds you back?

I want to end this morning by giving you an example of a weakness I embraced that ultimately allowed me to find strength. When I was growing up, one of my greatest weaknesses was my intelligence. I was in the advanced classes in my school, but I was the only one of my classmates who was not a part of the gifted and talented program. In order to get accepted, you had to pass a series of logic puzzles and it just so happens that I am horrible at logic puzzles.

So there were days when the entire class would leave for the gifted and talented program and I would remain in the room alone with the teacher. They would come back from the program all jazzed up about whatever creative project they were working on and I was given the distinct feeling that I was not only missing out, but that, even if I was in the program, I would not be smart enough to make any significant contribution.

But there were other differences that I began to notice over the years. When asked to solve a problem, I would approach it completely differently from them. I was always the last to finish any assignment and I often got it wrong. I was a slow reader and my brain seemed to have trouble absorbing details that they absorbed with almost no effort. Whereas they excelled at standardized testing, if the answer wasn’t blatantly obvious, I would quickly become confused.

For years, I tried to become like them. I tried to train my brain to be like theirs, but in spite of my best efforts, I simply couldn’t do what they did. At first, I just gave up. I wasn’t ever going to be smart, so why try. But then, after some years, I finally decided to embrace the way my brain approached the world. What I noticed is that, even though it took me twice as long to read something, after the fact that I remembered it way better. Because I could retain the information for so long, I also noticed that my brain was making interesting connections between different areas of study.

My brain could see how completely disconnected ideas complimented each other. This is a big reason why I’m always bringing in so many different types of subject matter into my sermons. On standardized tests, my brain was a liability. But in the world of ideas, my brain was an asset. In this way, by embracing my weakness, it became my greatest strength.

So as I end this morning, I hope that you will revel in your weakness. I hope you will realize that what makes you weak to the world is a strength that God wants to use for good. But most importantly, I hope that you will understand that our model for turning weakness into strength comes from Jesus, this little baby boy who would grow up to become a man whose weakness proves that love conquers all. Amen.