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Timothy 1:3-10
Second Sunday after Pentecost Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke Sunday, June 29, 2025
“Saved and Called”
What do you think of when you hear the term “mission work”? Do you think of Wisconsin Synod missions from the late 1800s that first started on the relatively nearby Apache reservations? Do you think of brave German-speaking immigrant pastors who made the efforts to learn a language and serve a people in a place quite different from Wisconsin and for that matter, anyplace in the Midwest? Do you think about missionaries to Africa or Asia where the same thing is done across oceans? Do you think of any particular missionaries that you have heard of or heard from? Perhaps you do. Perhaps you even think about Paul, a missionary from many centuries ago.
And you’d have good reason to think of Paul. Four separate times, he traveled throughout the Mediterranean world for the specific purpose of sharing God’s Word with people who had not heard it. You would have good reason to think of any number of missionaries who have followed in the footsteps of Paul and traveled great distances to share God’s Word, often across language and cultural barriers. You would have good reason to think about mission work as something that has been done far away, but in the context of today’s readings, I also want you to think about mission and mission work as something that takes place much closer to home. In fact, it takes place in our homes and our neighborhoods and our churches.
By the time Paul wrote the words of 2 Timothy, a letter to a younger man who was serving as a pastor, Paul was done with his missionary journeys. In fact, Paul was in prison. This may have been the very last of all the letters that Paul wrote. He expected that this imprisonment would end with his death.
The words we read as our Second Reading come from the early part of this letter to Timothy. After some formal greetings, Paul launches into his friendly and warm description of his feelings toward and efforts on behalf of Timothy, whom Paul describes as his own child. Paul describes his thankfulness, remembering Timothy in prayers, longing to see him, and considering his faith. Paul, and we should keep in mind that the Holy Spirit was working through him as he wrote, Paul went on to offer direct encouragement to Timothy, that he would fan into flame the gift of God, that he would be bold in proclaiming God’s Word, that he would even be so bold as to suffer if necessary for proclaiming that Word.
And here’s why Paul directs Timothy in that way: God saved us and called us with a holy calling. Out of all the verses in front of us, this one must succinctly summarizes the main issue. God made us his own. He forgave our sins. He rescued us from hell. He saved us. It wasn’t because of our works. It wasn’t because of what we have done. It was because of his grace. And for the same reason, his grace and his loving purpose, God called us. He gave us a mission. He gave us direction, focus. He gave us a goal.
Timothy as a pastor would have that as his career goal as it were. He would follow in Paul’s footsteps making the proclamation of the Word of God his life’s work and even his own livelihood. He wouldn’t necessarily travel the world in the same way, and that was not a requirement. Timothy would have opportunities to serve closer to home and he was to be ready for those opportunities. Timothy was to be bold, not timid, to be ready to testify about God and what he had done for him.
But there’s another thread that runs through these verses that is maybe a little bit less obvious until you look for it. And our theme for the week and our other readings help us tune into that as well. Do you see just how many people are referenced in connection to mission? I don’t mean mission work overseas or traveling, but the mission of Christians to share the good news with others.
Obviously, you have Paul who is passing this encouragement to Timothy. But you also have his ancestors, who served God with a clean conscience. And we may not want to identify them as Christians, because they would have lived before Christ, but they were believers. They were faithful people. That’s why Paul
can describe them as he does. He was in a lineage that passed the good news from one generation to the next. He was the beneficiary of this, and he in turn passed the good news onto the next. Then we would think of Timothy, again, somewhat obvious. But Timothy’s ministry wouldn’t look exactly like Paul’s. His would be different. It would have a different context and different specifics. Timothy was also the beneficiary of others sharing their faith, passing it down. His grandmother and his mother both were faithful believers who helped Timothy know the Scriptures from a very young age.
Maybe that doesn’t sound like mission work. Maybe Timothy thought that, too. But consider how important it is! These were the women instrumental in the life of Timothy to set a foundation for his faith and to share with him the encouragement he needed. They even get mentioned by name, Lois and Eunice. And in the way Paul describes them, they are examples of just what a Christian can accomplish in a role like mother and grandmother. They didn’t need to go overseas to make an impact. They didn’t even have to leave their own homes. They needed to focus on the holy calling and the noble mission of being a Christian mother and grandmother.
Do you see how this thread weaves its way through this reading and our other lessons? In the Old Testament, God calls his believers witnesses. But he doesn’t call all of them to go to foreign nations or to be prophets. He calls them to witness, and they can do that in their very own contexts. In the Gospel, a man is freed from the tyranny of a legion of demons, and that man ready to crawl in the boat with Jesus and his disciples, but Jesus tells him not to. “Stay here and tell people what God has done for you.” Jesus called other men to travel with him, other men to be apostles. He called this man to be a witness in his own context, in his own town, among his neighbors.
That same thread weaves through our lives. Maybe you could see yourself as a pastor or a missionary. What a wonderful, high calling. But you can serve God in many other ways and you can be his witness in many other contexts. Are you a parent? Do you have neighbors? Are there people with whom you work? Do you have discussions with people and friendships and other relationships? Do you see how many opportunities God lays before us? There is a noble mission and a high calling right here in your very own context, in your very own town.
In a strange way, the high calling of an overseas missionary can be sort of an excuse for us. “I can’t do that,” we say. I will give some offerings to support that sort of thing. I will offer prayers. I will eagerly listen when a missionary shares the stories of what God has accomplished. And those are all good things. But they are warped into an excuse for us to be timid when we think that’s the only way for mission work to be done. That’s the only sort of mission ahead of us as Christians. We don’t need to ever feel uncomfortable about starting a conversation or worried that someone will reject us. We don’t have to open ourselves to talking about all the sins that God has forgiven in our lives.
That attitude is not the mission upon which we are placing our undivided attention today. That’s a spirit of fear and timidity. You have a God who has revealed himself in his Son, Jesus Christ. His death and resurrection have abolished death and brought to light life and immortality. You have the gospel, the good news. Your life has been changed. You have a story to tell about how good God has been to you. And you can be bold to tell that story. You have been saved. You have been called with a holy calling. You have a mission right in front of you that deserves your attention.
That doesn’t mean it is easy. Paul was suffering. He was in prison. Timothy was being called to join in suffering for the gospel. There’s a reason this mission calls for boldness. But there is a Savior who has given you everything that you need.
What do you think of when you think about mission work? It’s not wrong to consider foreign mission fields and strange languages and different cultures. But don’t forget about the mission right before us. Don’t lose sight of the glorious fact that you have been saved and you have been called. Life and immortality are yours. That’s a high and holy calling.
The Text: 2 Timothy 1:3–10 (EHV)
3I 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.