May 19, 2024
Fan Into Flame
2 Timothy 1:1-8
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.
For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Paul wrote to Timothy, “rekindle the gift of God that is within you.” Another translation says, “Keep it ablaze!” Yet another says, “Fan into flame the gift of God.” Let us pray.
Lord, pour out your Spirit on my speaking, on our hearing, and on our thinking together, so that each one of us may hear your voice, your call, your challenge and receive your Spirit of power and love. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
One year ago, on Pentecost 2023, our family gathered around the firepit in the backyard about sunset for a Pentecost Bonfire.
It was my job to build the fire, but I’m not a very good fire-builder. When we go camping, I have fire envy when I see the well-built, long-lasting, almost self-sustaining fires that other people build! We had friends over, and I was feeling a little self-conscious. I had newspaper to light; I had pine cones from the backyard as a starter; I had kindling from the woodshop that was very dry and easy to burn; I had dead branch-wood gathered from the yard; I had logs that had been drying for a couple of years; and I had brand-new bottle of lighter-fluid just in case.
I mean, with all of that, how could the fire not get going?!
After about ten minutes or so, we had a really good fire burning, and we were all having a great time. But, as I said, this was a Pentecost and for Pentecost we had planned a grand finale. Back at Christmas, before we put the Christmas tree on the street for recycling, Caitlin had cut the top two feet off of the tree and set it aside for our first-ever Pentecost fire!
I won’t unpack all of the theological significance of that, and she could do it better than I can, but I thought it was a really cool idea. Let me tell you, when we dropped that very dry, very crisp two feet of Frasier Fir onto the fire – it went up like a torch! For about five minutes, we had a five foot tall roaring fire. And we laughed, and our smiles were lit by the light of the flames, and we celebrated Pentecost.
Fire has been a symbol of Pentecost since the very first day. It was wind and fire. A sound like a mighty wind rushed through the house where they were gathered. Tongues of flame came and separated and rested on each one of them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in foreign languages. The symbols of Pentecost are wind and fire.
The Holy Spirit is the spark of faith that makes the fire possible. All the conditions for a fire can be right – starter and kindling and wood and even a fresh bottle of lighter fluid! – but without a spark there will be no fire. The Holy Spirit is the spark that ignites the church, a spark that continually ignites a flame of faith in Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul has that spark of the Holy Spirit, that gift of the fire of faith, in mind when he tells his young mentee Timothy to fan into flame the gift of God that is within him.
In Second Timothy, the Apostle Paul is in a Roman prison, near the end of his life, facing a certain execution. He is writing a final letter of advice Timothy, a young man whom he has mentored and who has become like a son to him.
Think of Mr. Miyagi mentoring Daniel in Karate Kid, teaching him the mental and physical skills he needed to excel. Or think Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting, who mentored Will Hunting as he confronted his personal demons. Or think of William Forrester who mentored the young, talented writer Jamal Wallace, in Finding Forrester, as Jamal was navigating the challenges of his life. Or think of those who have mentored you, who encouraged you, challenged, shared their experiences with you, and believed in you.
The Apostle Paul met Timothy when he was traveling through Lystra. Timothy was the child of a inter-faith home, he had a Jewish mother and a Greek father. Timothy traveled with Paul, and Paul helped him grow his faith in Christ and find vocation and purpose in his life. Over time, Timothy became like a son to Paul. So Paul now writes to Timothy.
“I pray for you.” “I give thanks to God for you.” “I long to see you,” Paul says.
Paul reminds Timothy that he is praying for him, that he is grateful for him, that wishes he could see him again. He reminds Timothy of the sincere faith he learned from his grandmother and mother. He reminds Timothy of a powerful experience they had together, when Paul prayed for Timothy and laid hands on him.
And he tells Timothy, rekindle the gift of God that is in you.
The Greek word can be translated in different ways: rekindle, stir up, fan into flame. If the fire has nearly gone out, the word mean to blow on the fire and bring it back to life. If the fire is just low, the word means stir it up, to rearrange the logs, to poke at the embers so that the fire will burn again.
This, Paul says, is something Timothy needs to do with the gift of God within him. His grandmother and mother taught him scripture, and sang songs of faith, and brought him to worship. Paul helped him trust in Christ, and befriended him, prayed for him, wrote to him, trained him, and encouraged him. God gave him specials gifts, a spark that could ignite his unique abilities and experiences and calling. But Timothy must himself stir up the divine gift within himself. God could give him the spark; but Timothy must fan it into flame.
It is that way with each one of us. We must fan into flame the gift of God that is within us. Faith does not simply exist as a thing. Faith is not there as a gift, the way that the gift of a picture hangs on a wall, or the gift of a piece of art might sit on a table. Faith is not a gift you can leave alone and come back to once a week, or once a month, or once a year.
The gift of faith needs nurturing and tending the way we tend a fire. If you leave it too long, it will die down to almost nothing. If you pay it too little attention, it will never reach its full potential. The gift of faith needs tending, encouraging, and nurturing.
When God gives the gift of faith, God gives many of the very best gifts that make us who we are: gifts for love and service to others, for music, for prayer, gifts speaking and writing, gifts and friendship, and encouragement, and generosity, and peacemaking, and kindness; gifts of insight and intelligence and study; gifts of joyfulness and hopefulness.
All of the gifts that God gives make us who we are and help us to share light of Christ with the world, and we must be stir them and stoke and encourage and nurture them so that they will shine brightly. God gives the spark, but we must fan it into flame.
Today, I think of our music director, Jeremy Roberts, who leaving us next month to take a position at a larger congregation, with the opportunity to work closely with a mentor in music whom he highly respects. For eight years, Jeremy has tended, nurtured, and encouraged his gifts as he has worked among us. Yes, he has nurtured and encouraged our gifts too and helped us express our faith through song. Yet, he has done that by nurturing and stirring up his own gifts – his musical skills, his leadership and organizational ability, his vision for how to lead and grow a music ministry, and his faith in Christ and his vision for how music can build community and strengthen faith and express faith so much deeper than words alone.
Jeremy, we are grateful for how you have fanned, and stirred, and kindled your gifts into flame with us.
This is the calling for each one of us, no matter our age, or profession, or place in life. The Spirit of God gives us a spark of faith – that is the gift of Pentecost – and our responsibility is to fan it into flame.
Confirmation has been a very important part of stirring up the flame of each one of these confirmands today. The spark of faith was given to them at their baptism by the Spirit. Their parents brought them to be baptized with hope and love, promising to pray for them, and teach them the faith, and set a good example. Their parents, and their church, and other mentors, have fanned that spark and nurtured the flame over the years. And now they come for their baptism to be confirmed by their public profession of faith.
In the course of confirmation, the confirmands have thought through their emerging beliefs, and emerging identities, and the people who have shaped them – including the mentors who have walked alongside them in this season – and they have identified those practices that stir and kindle the fire of faith for them.
When reading their personal statements of faith, I was struck by how they can name what helps their faith to come alive and grow.
One wrote that to, “truly put faith in God means to put God as your number One.” That is a life-long challenge that will fan the flame of faith in every one of us.
One wrote that the church is called to act as Jesus did, helped by the Spirit, and live like Jesus as best we can.
Another wrote that music is like going straight to God and that music makes her feel closer and more connected to God.
Another wrote about resting in the amazing love and support of the community of faith, and being renewed in faith at a time when her faith in God was nearly gone.
Another wrote how being part of this congregation means she welcomed and loved, and challenged to grow in her faith.
Another wrote that God is love and God calls us to love all our neighbors, regardless of their gender, or ethnicity, or sexual orientation, or beliefs.
Each of those arises from the life-stories and emerging identities and beliefs and gifts of each one of these students. The calling of the church – the whole church, all of us – is the same. To know ourselves, our personalities and gifts, our experiences, the people who have mentored us, the gifts and interests God has given us, to know ourselves well enough to know what helps our faith come alive, and to fan the gift into flame.
How are you nurturing and growing and encouraging your gifts – the gift of your faith, and all of the others gifts God has given you that help you to share the light of Christ?
Let me close with this thought, from Kenda Dean, a professor of Christian Education at Princeton Seminary. Dr. Dean has researched and written extensively about how faith is handed from one generation to another, and how it is stirred and kindled from one person to another.
Her vision of how this happens describes beautifully how Lois and Eunice and Paul helped Timothy, and how we can help each other. She writes:
“What Christian adults know that teenagers are still discovering is that every one of them is an amazing child of God. Their humanity is embedded in their souls as well as their DNA. Their family is the church, their vocation is a grateful response for the chance to participate in the divine plan of salvation, their hope lies in the fact Christ has claimed them and secured the future for them. If we, the church, lived alongside young people as though this were true—if we lived alongside anybody as though this were true – we could be the community that Christ calls us to be.”
Truly, a Pentecost bonfire of faith, hope, and love. Amen.
Rev. Patrick W. T. Johnson, Ph.D.
First Presbyterian Church
Asheville, North Carolina