Sermon Text: 2 Timothy 1:3-10
Date: June 22, 2025
Event: Proper 7, Year C
2 Timothy 1:3-10 (EHV)
I thank God, whom I serve with a clean conscience as my ancestors did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day. 4When I remember your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5I remember your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am convinced that it also lives in you.
6For this reason I am reminding you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a timid spirit, but a spirit of power and love and sound judgment. 8So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Instead, join with me in suffering for the gospel while relying on the power of God. 9He saved us and called us with a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, 10and it has now been revealed through the appearance of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Different Messengers Share the Same Message
If you ever played the game of telephone, you know how a message can be distorted as it goes through different people. Perhaps your real life was impacted by such an event. News gets passed from one person to another, but that news can get warped because someone mishears, misspeaks, strips away context, or even warps the original meaning to serve their purposes. Thus, it may radically differ from what was initially spoken when it reaches you. This is a good reminder to not engage in or trust in gossip because those things are so easily distorted to the destruction of someone’s reputation!
A message passed through a chain can get messed up, but what about a message sent through many different messengers? If there is one source but many messengers, while each messenger may put their spin on it or phrase things in a way unique to them, the message is much more likely to be reliable. An email sent from the boss to all the managers will probably allow the information to be passed down more accurately than if transmission relied on a person-to-person-to-person transmission.
Who are the messengers that God has chosen and sent? In a formal way, I suppose you could see it as those called into the public ministry—pastors, teachers, staff ministers—who publicly represent the church in the world. But it’s a whole lot broader than that. It’s all of us, in all the different places where we live and the situations that we are in, that God has called to be his messengers, his witnesses.
Obviously, because we are all different and in different situations, that messenger work is going to look pretty different from person to person. Your conversation with someone about spiritual and eternal matters might sound pretty different from a conversation I would have—and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I would say that more often than not, it’s a good thing because God is using each of us in our unique situations and with the unique set of experiences, talents, and minds to share what he’s done with the world.
In our Gospel, we saw that after the man who was released from those demons was cured, he wanted to go with Jesus and the disciples to follow him full-time. He was so thankful for what Jesus did that he wanted to thank him in that special way, to learn more, to be that much more closely tied to Jesus for as long as possible. But Jesus’ answer was perhaps a bit surprising. “Return to your home and tell how much God has done for you.” No formal training was forthcoming, no lifetime of public service to Jesus’ work. Rather, Jesus sent him to be a witness right where he was. And truly, what better place for this many to share the wonders of God than among the people who had seen with their own eyes his condition before Jesus arrived and the stark difference after?
In our Second Reading, which is our primary focus for this morning, we have Paul writing to young Pastor Timothy. Timothy was part of that first generation of Christian church leaders who were not direct followers of Jesus during his earthly ministry, but came to faith due to the apostles’ work. Timothy likely would have never seen Jesus with his physical eyes as the Twelve and even Paul did, but he was no less confident in what God had done for him. Like you and me, God worked faith in his heart through the message shared with him, and he, in turn, was the mouthpiece of the gospel through which God created faith in others.
This letter is Paul’s second to Timothy, preserved for us in the New Testament and Paul’s last letter written in the Bible (perhaps, written at all, as it was written shortly before Paul was executed). As such, this letter has a tone of finality and a sense of “passing the baton” to the next generation. So, in the letter, Paul focuses Timothy on the core, important truths in many different ways.
But here in the very beginning, Paul takes Timothy to a very personal place. We know that Timothy’s mother was Jewish and his father was a Gentile. Paul is very clear that Timothy’s faith life didn’t start when he met up with the apostle later in his life. No, it started far, far earlier. I remember your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am convinced that it also lives in you. Where did Timothy’s faith journey begin? At home, with his dear mother and grandmother, who shared their faith in the certain hope of the promises of God.
What a tremendous encouragement for the parents and grandparents, the aunts and uncles, the caretakers and guardians of children who are with us here today! I try to make a point with our families that whether we’re talking about Sunday School or Catechism class or any other youth-focused ministry, these things exist at the church to help support the family’s responsibility in bringing their children up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). The church, the pastor, the Sunday School teacher, and the Christian school are not the primarily spiritual guides for our children; we are.
And that speaks to our broad overall point—many messengers, but the same message. When the parent shares the comfort of Jesus’ love with their child, it’s not a different message than what might come from this pulpit on a Sunday morning. But might the mother have a special connection with her child to share God's intimate love with them in a way no pastor could? Might the father’s gentle, loving care be able to communicate the heavenly Father’s blessing and keeping in a way that no Sunday School teacher could present it?
And this is not limited to family connections or connecting with younger generations. All of us have contact with different people in different places. Whether at work, home, or out in public, we are messengers, ambassadors for our God. And the roles God places on us (what we often call our “vocations”) will impact who we interact with and how. But as God’s messengers, what counts is not the number of people reached or the eloquence with which we share the gospel, but that we were faithful to sharing the gospel in the places God has planted us.
Timothy’s calling would not be the same as Paul’s. Paul was called broadly to be a messenger to the Gentiles at large, traveling from place to place. While Timothy did spend time with Paul on these missionary journeys, by the time Paul writes this letter, Timothy is serving as the pastor of the Christians in the city of Ephesus. His was a more local and specific call, though no less important. Likewise, Lois and Eunice’s call was to serve the spiritual needs of their children and grandchildren, and Timothy, while growing up, was a direct beneficiary of that work.
And none of us deserves or has earned this calling or these responsibilities. Paul is clear on this when he says that God has called us with a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace. God’s mission is that all know his saving love, all know the forgiveness of sins, and he primarily gets that message out through people who have directly benefited from this, those whom he has both saved and called, people like you and me.
The work is God’s, the message is God’s, and we, as the messengers, also belong to God. All of us can look back at opportunities we had to share God’s Word in the special places God put us and regret how we rose to that task. We were silent when we should have shared, and we were loud when we should have been listening. Thanks be to God that the message we share is also the solution to our problems in sharing that message. Jesus’ forgiveness wipes away our failures and missteps. The Holy Spirit cleans up our message and works faith through what we say, even if we felt it was not the right words, tone, place, time, or whatever. Because this is God’s message, the work is his, even if it comes through our trembling, feeble lips.
Here in his Word, we hear the message we are privileged to live and share: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. Jesus’ work means our forgiveness and eternal life, a message we want to share with as many people as possible.
God, bless our work, forgive our failings, and help us to be your witnesses wherever you have placed us. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.
