Fan Into Flame the Gift of God

Fan Into Flame the Gift of God

II Timothy 1:1-14

    What do you do when you have a problem and you can’t figure out what to do?  Most people usually go to someone with more experience and ask for their advice.  When that kind of help is easily available and is intentional, we often call that mentoring.  The idea of mentoring has been used in a number of situations.  It can be used to help young people who do not have a good adult role model as in the Big Brother, Big Sister program.  It is often used on the job when entry level employees are assigned a mentor to help them get acquainted with policies and procedures.  Your Board of Elders spend several months reading and discussing a book called The Mentor Leader as a way of helping them see the ways that intentional mentoring can help to improve the work that they are doing now and help them as they look to the future as new elders join the board. 

     As you read and hear the Epistle lesson for today you can see how St. Paul served as a mentor to young Timothy who was growing as a leader of the church at Ephesus.  Paul wanted to emphasize the importance of remaining faithful to the teachings that he had learned and to make use of the sources of strength that God would provide for him as he did his work.  His words of encouragement can be good words for you as you seek to remain faithful to the teachings of Scripture and at the same time seek to serve your Lord and Savior by serving His Church and those around you.

     The key words that stand out as I read this passage are found in verse 6, that I read before.  “Fan into flame the gift of God.”  If you have ever tried to build a fire, whether at a camp-site or in a fire place, you know what a difference it can make when you fan the flame.  Sometimes when the fire seems to be dying out, all you need to do is fan the flame a bit and soon the flames will grow.  Perhaps the best example of that can be seen when you watch a blacksmith.  Fanning the flame is an important part of getting the iron hot enough to make it workable.  A blacksmith will use a device called a bellows which blows air at the embers of the furnace to make it hotter.  The fanning of the flame makes his work more effective.  

     Paul tells Timothy that the gift of God that had been given to him needs to be fanned so that it can grow and be effective in the spreading of the Gospel and the leading of God’s people.  That will happen when Timothy continues to follow the pattern of sound words that he had been taught, both by his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice and by Paul himself, words of faith and love in Christ Jesus.  Behind all that good teaching, those sound words, was the Holy Spirit who would also be with Him to help him guard the good deposit, as Paul called it, that was entrusted to him.  That’s an interesting way to describe the teachings that you have received.  It is a good deposit, deposited in you so that it can grow. 

     As Timothy’s mentor, Paul also felt that it was important to warn him that there would also be suffering for the sake of the Gospel.  Paul was actually writing to Timothy from prison in Rome.  Scholars feel that this was the last letter written by Paul.  Paul knew about suffering for the Lord.  Yet he also boldly proclaimed, “But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.”  He knows that there is no other to whom he can turn for his eternal salvation and he is convinced that the Lord will keep his faith strong until that Day when Jesus comes again. 

     As you read the letters to Timothy, it should be fairly easy to identify with him and in a way see the Apostle Paul as a mentor for your Christian life as well.  He could be talking to you, giving you encouragement for the times when you will be called on to undertake something that may seem at first to be beyond your comfort level or too hard for you.  When those times come, and they happen all the time to the people of God, the same words could be said, “Fan into flame the gift of God.” 

     Think of when that gift of God was given to you.  For many of you it was given to you at your Baptism.  God gave you the gift of the Holy Spirit who would continue to work in you as you heard the word of God and grew in your faith in your early years.  Like Timothy, the foundations of the faith were taught by family members. For Timothy it was his mother and grandmother.  For you it may have been the same or perhaps someone else who taught you the first prayers, told you about Jesus, encouraged you to grow in your knowledge and trust in God’s saving love.  They were fanning into flame the gift that God had given to you.  The flame continued to grow as you had your first experiences with Sunday School.  Your Sunday School teachers fanned the flame so that it would grow.  Your faith grew as you became more and more aware of what it meant that Jesus died for your sins and that through His suffering and death and resurrection your sins were forgiven and you were given the gift of eternal life in heaven. You became aware of more of the gifts that God had given to you as you grew older and through the pattern of sound words and teaching, you came to understand the calling that you have as a child of God.  Paul talked about the holy calling that you have, not because of your works but because of God’s own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.  That’s a long sentence from verses 9 and 10, but he essentially tells us that God’s plan for us, by His grace, was to carry out a holy calling of sharing the Gospel of Jesus, a message of Law and Gospel, of sin and grace, that will bring new life to people now and eternal life to those who believe.

It truly is a holy calling because it comes from our holy God. 

      But you also know what happens when the embers of a fire are left alone for too long.  The fire goes out.  When that happens, it can become difficult and discouraging to try and carry out that holy calling in a world that always seems to be saying just the opposite.  That is what Timothy was going to face as a leader of the church in Ephesus where the Christian church was a very distinct minority among many pagan religions.  That is what you are facing in the world today.  The world around us doesn’t like to hear the message of Law and Gospel.  It has become pagan in many ways.  You may become fearful to the point that you chose to do nothing with that holy calling that you have.  Yet the encouragement that Paul gives to Timothy can be the same for you.  “Fan into flame the gift of God.”  Make use of the ways that God has provided for you to fan those embers of faith that have been given to you.  The Holy Spirit works to strengthen your faith through the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments.  As you hear God’s Word, meditate on it, study it, take it to heart, the embers of your faith are being fanned and your faith is strengthened.  As you remember your Baptism, you are reminded of how the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to you to help you grow in your faith, all the time fanning the flame.  When you receive the Lord’s Supper, the Spirit is fanning into flame the gifts that God has given to you so that you are strengthened and given the courage to carry out your calling as a child of God.

     Some of those gifts include various talents and abilities that can be used for the good of God’s Kingdom here on earth.  God gives those gifts as He chooses in every congregation so that His work in each place can be done and can succeed.  When God’s people continue to fan into flame the gifts that God has given, great things can happen.  The church will be carrying out God’s plans and more and more people will be blessed as the people of God share the grace and love that are in Christ Jesus.  You can be the one who fans into flame the gift of God for someone.  That good deposit has been given to you.  By the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, guard that the good deposit entrusted to you.  Fan it into a flame that touches everything around you.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, Ohio

October 6, 2013