Today is a special day for a couple of reasons. It is World Communion Sunday. Followers of Jesus around the world from Afghanistan to Alaska, from Canada to Chile, from Laos to Labrador gather at the Table to remember Jesus in this special supper.

Today is also special because our first graders will be receiving communion for the first time. They met here yesterday as Mrs. Schultz told us. They listened to the story from the Bible about Jesus’ last supper with his disciples. We gathered in the kitchen so they could see how the communion elements are prepared. The best part is the little squeegee bottle that fills the hundreds of tiny communion cups with juice. Everyone got a turn to work the special bottle. We then came into this sanctuary and looked at the beautiful windows and the one with scenes from Jesus’ last week on earth and the picture of him having communion with his followers. Finally, we stood in a circle right here and said a thank you prayer….the children thanked God for their pets, their parents, for food and water and Westminster and for their families and for Jesus.

Paul’s letter to Timothy is the perfect reading for today for two reasons. First because Paul is the one who enabled Christianity to spread out of Jerusalem and around the world. Paul was the Johnny Appleseed of the faith. He carried the good news of Jesus everywhere – planting seeds of faith in community after community after community. It is fitting to read one of his letters today, World Communion Sunday. Secondly, of all the letters of Paul’s to read the second letter to Timothy is perfect for our first graders and their families. Not just them but all of our children and young people and their families. You see, Timothy was one of Paul’s best helpers in spreading the good news. Paul regarded Timothy as his spiritual son. Paul was old enough to be Timothy’s father. He loved Timothy very much. It was Timothy, you see, who would continue Paul’s work of carrying the gospel to new lands. By the time Paul wrote his letter he was at the end of his life. He was in prison for the second time, only this time he was condemned to die. Those were the days when the Roman government and religious authorities persecuted Christians. You can see on the arch above me the symbols of the martyrs. These symbols represent the ways, the tools of torture by which those first Christians were put to death.

So you can understand what Paul was getting at when he wrote those words of advice to Timothy. You see, Timothy had a lot on his young shoulders. Timothy was carrying on the legacy that Paul started. Timothy was the hope of the future – as we so often say about our young people. Timothy was young and inexperienced. Paul wanted to give Timothy the best advice he had. Something Timothy could hold onto when Paul was gone. Something that would give him strength when he found himself on trial someday, answering to the authorities. Paul knew that you had to have a very strong faith to follow Jesus. But he was also human enough to know that sometimes you just felt like your faith wasn’t strong enough.  So to encourage his beloved son in the faith what does Paul say? He doesn’t tell Timothy to memorize every story Jesus told. He doesn’t tell him to spend five hours a day in prayers. He doesn’t advise Timothy to make some spiritual pilgrimage somewhere. He tells Timothy to rekindle the gift that is within him. To look within for the answer. Did you hear how Paul referred to that gift of faith in Timothy’s heart? He calls it a precious treasure in verse 14. God has given you not a spirit of timidity but of courage, says Paul. A spirit of power and love and self-discipline. Rekindle that gift of God within you, Paul says.

There is much wisdom for us in what Paul says. Let me tell you a story. This past summer our youngest son Douglas participated in a wilderness program to rekindle some of the gifts that are within him. And of all things what do you think he learned how to do first? Build a fire. You see when you are in a deciduous rain forest like Doug was in the Great Smoky Mountain National Forest where it rained for 25 days out of 37 it is a good thing to know how to build a fire. Matches aren’t much help because they get wet and you can run out of them. Sometimes you can go through a whole book of matches trying to start one fire – especially if the kindling is wet. So Doug learned the Native American way of starting a fire – bow drilling. Tom Hanks used a form of this method of starting a fire in the movie “Castaway.”

First you find a branch from any bush but the Rhododendron works best. It has to have a bow to it. Then you make some cordage or rope from poplar bark or the kitsu plant and you string it to your bow. You keep a couple of pieces of poplar four inches long – these are your spindles. Then you find a flat piece of wood that serves as your fireboard. Finally you twist the spindle into the cordage, place the pointed end of the spindle on the board, hold the board in place with your foot and start bowing – like a cellist in the Buffalo Philharmonic. It sounds easy. Very few people can actually start a fire this way. I asked Doug why that was so. He thought maybe people want results too fast. Or they give up too soon. Anyone can learn to do this he said but you have to have patience. As Doug was demonstrating to us and about fifteen parents how the bow drill works he was bowing very methodically and talking to us. Sometimes the spindle pops out or the cordage breaks he said or your arm gets tired. But that’s life. Put it back together and start again. Then a little plume of smoke started appearing, then more smoke. Then Doug stopped and very carefully rolled a red-hot little coal onto the blade of his knife. He referred to that coal as his baby.

While his baby was sitting on the knife blade he took one of his tinder bundles – a wad of strips of popular bark that had been frayed by the bicycling method into a bird’s nest of tinder. It takes an hour to make one of these. Doug put the hot coal – the size of a wooden match head – into the tinder bundle, held it above his head and started blowing into it. In about 30 seconds the entire bundle burst into flames. He then put the bundle into a teepee of twigs and sticks where he got a very hearty fire going in about five minutes.
Now, why did I tell you this story? You see each of us has that gift of God that has been placed within us – that precious little red-hot coal of faith the size of a wooden match head. Jesus says that it only has to be the size of a mustard seed. If we have that much faith we have all we need to do great things, says Jesus. When Doug realized he could start a fire anywhere, anytime in that wilderness – miles from civilization he knew that he could survive deep in a cold and rainy forest. There was a deep peace and calm and confidence that was evident in his eyes and the sound of his voice the first time we saw him on the trail. He was his own person. He could face and handle the harsh elements.

That’s what Paul wanted to give to Timothy. He wanted his young friend Timothy to discover confidence and peace and calm he would need to preach the gospel in a hostile world. You have what it takes already within you Paul said. The gift God gave you. Rekindle that. Remember how Paul praised Timothy’s mother Eunice and grandmother Lois in today’s reading? He praised them for the wonderful job they did raising their son and grandson. We teach our children to do lots of things. We sign them up in soccer leagues and send them to tennis camps and give them golf lessons. But if I had to choose as a parent whether my son could drive a golf ball 300 hundred yards or discover the gift of God within him I can tell you I would prefer him to discover that gift of faith inside his heart. That is the message for all of us today. Not just the parents of our first graders and our first graders. Most of us here are lucky to have had a parent or grandparent or Sunday School teacher or mentor who helped us discover the gift within us. It is all you need really. So often we ignore it or don’t take it seriously or think it’s too small. But the message from Paul today is cherish that gift. Rekindle it. Rely on the spirit of power and love and self-control God gives you.

Just imagine the kind of world we would have if every Christian who gathered at the table today realized the power within him or her, the precious treasure of faith, the gift of God in their heart. Imagine the mountains we could move. Barriers to peace and health and life.

Amen.