2 Kings 5.1-15
2 Timothy 2.8-15
Luke 17.11-19
I wonder if you’ve ever watched I’m a celebrity…get me out of here? Selected celebrities are expected to face things most of us would rather avoid, like putting one’s arm into a tank full of writhing snakes, or handling a tarantula. There is no sum of money that would induce me to put my arm into a tank of snakes and neither would I be too enamoured about spending the night in a rat-infested cellar.
We all have our limits. Some of us reach those limits more quickly than others.
For some, it’s about phobias or fear, but for others it’s about status. There are those who would never perform menial tasks because they would consider those menial tasks to be beneath them and conversely there are those who would never perform up-front public tasks because they wouldn't consider themselves to be important enough to stand above other people.
Some people have honesty limits and some do not. Some declare every penny on their income tax returns because their honesty compels them to do so. Others aren't above ignoring the odd bundle of savings stashed away here and there in some little known account, as long as they aren't spotted.
We all have our limits. Each of us a limit. They’re all different, but we all have them. Sometimes we might be surprised by them, in our selves or others, but we all have our limits. If you saw Ann Widecombe on Strictly Come Dancing you might wonder if she has no limits, but we all have our limits.
However, I want to suggest to you that God does not have limits in the same way, perhaps not at all. Where we humans have our limits, God does not.
In today’s Old Testament reading we heard the story of Elisha's healing of Naaman. There are many different things that we could focus upon in this story, but I just want to think about one aspect of it: a foreigner is cured of an incurable disease. God, in his love and healing, works beyond the limits of race, which was unthinkable to the people around when this was written. God also worked beyond the limits of what was then otherwise incurable, which was also unthinkable to the people around when this was written. God, in his love and healing, works way beyond any limits we might think of.
Some time around 800 BC, when Naaman the Syrian army commander discovered that he had leprosy, he was devastated. He searched high and low for a cure for this terrible disease, but none was forthcoming. When his wife's Hebrew slave girl timidly mentioned a famous healer in her own country of Samaria, Naaman was like the proverbial drowning man grabbing at a straw. He prepared his entourage of slaves and luggage, horses and chariots and expensive gifts, and set off for the long journey to Samaria and the prophet Elisha.
He expected to be treated with dignity and respect or, at the very least, with common courtesy. But Elisha the prophet was no respecter of persons and had no time for pomp and ceremony. He made it clear how little regard he held for Naaman by not even appearing in order to examine Naaman and ascertain his condition. But he did care for him as a human being in need, for he simply sent a somewhat off-hand message instructing Naaman to swim in the filthy waters of the Jordan river.
Who knows what else was swimming in the Jordan? Who knows what hidden dangers lurked beneath its surface? Who knows what infection Naaman might pick up from the dirty water? And Naaman, moreover, had come from Damascus where the mountain springs produced rivers which were noted for their crystal-clear purity.
Naaman had his limits, like the rest of us He had almost reached them when he was treated with such disdain by Elisha, but the thought of bathing in the murky waters of the Jordan was the limit beyond which he would not go. Besides, the chances of such a dirty river curing a disease which was untouched by the purest of spring waters were remote.
In outrage and disappointment he turned to go home, for it was clear that the prophet was nothing but a quack and his remedies were nothing but wishful thinking. But Naaman was clearly a good man, for he was sufficiently liked and respected by his slaves for them to approach him with real concern for his welfare. And they dared to be honest with him by pointing out his character weakness, his desire to be highly regarded. Amazingly, Naaman listened to them and had enough humility to take on board what they were saying. So, he washed in the Jordan as instructed and his leprosy was healed.
It's clear from the story that the Jordan had no particular healing powers in itself, it was simply the instrument chosen by God to effect Naaman's healing. We're left realising that the healing was not just skin deep, but that a profound change took place within Naaman. From someone who drew the line at anything which might demean him, he became someone who was humble and accepting and who was healed deep within. God worked on Naaman's limits and pushed Naaman beyond his limits in order to enable him to become a whole human being.
God’s limits were not really there. He cured a foreigner of an incurable disease. God’s healing love has no limit.
We all have our limits, of course, but do we recognise what those limits are? Do we have any tendency, like Naaman, to be conditional in our acceptance of God? Will we accept God's words from one person but refuse to accept them from another? Will we happily agree to do one job within the church or outside the church, but refuse to do another? Are we picky about our offers of help or our offers of time?
God knew Naaman's limits and worked on them. Dare we be open enough to allow God to work on our limits?
Think of the Chilean miners trapped underground for so long. For all the time they’ve been trapped in that small space they must have thought they’d reached their limit so many times, but had to go on.
Moving on to our gospel reading, Jesus heals some lepers. Again we have a story of God, through Jesus, healing foreigners of an incurable disease. The other point of particular interest is that they are on their way to priest, but Jesus heals them in the street. Clearly God is working outside organised religion! God’s healing love is without limits. Does that challenge our limits?
And our third reading from the second letter to Timothy, begins with a clear statement about the resurrection of Jesus. Amongst other things, timothy is saying that something happened - not just some vague experience amongst the disciples, but something definite and life-changing, that has fed Christian faith for 200 years and more. This was something new - it’s wasn’t resuscitation, which is bring the dead back again, but resurrection - new life. In The Lord of the Rings when Gandalf the Grey dies, he comes back not as Gandalf the Grey resuscitated, but as Gandalf the White - someone new. So we’re told that God's greatest work is in raising Jesus from the dead. This is God’s healing love and power at work without limit again.
Again and again God is at work without limit, overcoming multiple cases of leprosy, enabling people to reintegrate into their community, and overcoming the hostility between the Samaritan and the Jew. There are no limits to God’s healing, God’s power, and God’s love as we can see them. Does this challenge our limits?
There’s a hymn we sometimes sing, which puts these ideas like this:
There's a wideness in God's mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There's a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty.
There is plentiful redemption
In the blood that has been shed;
There is joy for all the members
In the sorrows of the Head.
There is grace enough for thousands
Of new worlds as great as this;
There is room for fresh creations
In the Lord’s unfathomed bliss.
For the love of God is broader
Than the measures of our mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own.
If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be illumined
By the glory of the Lord.
