Loading...Sermon June 26, 2016
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost Track 2 Proper 8
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Galatians 5:13-14
Please be seated.
Yesterday a story in The New York Times about swimmer Michael Phelps caught my eye. Today Mr. Phelps tries to qualify for his fifth Olympics. He’s 31 now. He was the youngest member of the team in 2000 when he was 15 years old. In 2008 in Beijing, he won a record eight gold medal. He was only 23 years old. He didn’t know what to do next. He’d set a goal and a dream and he accomplished it.
In 2012, he barely trained and still won four gold medals and two silver medals. Clearly a talented person when it came to swimming, he lost his way. He didn’t know what to do with his life. He drank alcohol, sometimes heavily. He had a DUI. He said he was pushing people away. Finally, in the fall of 2014, he went to The Meadows, a rehabilitation center for a six-week program.
While there, Phelps had a breakthrough in learning to love himself. He said:
After working out for two hours to expend his energy, he found himself brooding about his behavior, as he often did. “I was afraid to show who I was,” he said, “so I had all these personas.”
In the shower, he shed all his second skins. Phelps said: “I thought: Oh my God, do these people think I’m annoying? Do they not want to be around me? Then I thought, Why do I care? If I talk too much, if I laugh really loud or if I’m hyper at times, or a real pain in the ass, at the end of the day why does it really matter?
“Right then and there it was like there’s no point for me to try to be somebody I’m not. This is who I am.”
“This is who I am.” In our Epistle today, we’re reminded of an essential tenet of our faith, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And how we treat ourselves is how we treat others. We’re not perfect and we have our warts. We cover our “difficult” sides with personas. Yet, we are called to love ourselves, warts and all.
It’s quite a paradox in some ways. It’s not that we should revel in the parts of ourselves that are challenging to us. Paul names some of these in our reading: jealousy, anger, idolatry, drunkenness, and dissension to name a few. Certainly we don’t want these to emerge all that often if at all. Yet, we’ll always have traits and behaviors that we or others may not like so much.
And Christ sets us free. We can love ourselves and at the same time acknowledge that we are not perfect. We can love ourselves and know how much we need God, because we are not God and we have our imperfections. As Phelps came to realize, we are set free to be vulnerable. Phelps says his vulnerability is a strength.
In being set free, and in loving ourselves, we are able to love our neighbors, too. We are able to feel compassion for them, because we know they have their imperfections just like we do.
It’s quite a challenge. And Paul clearly lays out for us what happens when we think only of ourselves and I would say when we are mired in self hatred and loathing. Paul also clearly lays out for us the “fruits of the spirit” that come when we love ourselves and then love others: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)
Michael Phelps says his goal at this Olympics is not necessarily to win more medals to add to the 18 Gold, two silver and two bronze. I’m sure he’d like to win. But more importantly, he wants to be a good husband to his wife and a good father to his son. Then he wants to do his very best with the talent he’s been given.
Fruits of the spirit is what he’s after – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Let us love ourselves. Let us love our neighbors. Let us live in those wonderful fruits of the spirit.
Amen
