This is theology of the cross. It is a treasure in jars of clay, surpassing power, and faith in folks like Timothy and Paul and in little old ladies like Eunice and Lois.
I served several years ago at a congregation in Pomona, California, where one of my congregants was a little old lady named Ramona. I fondly call her little miss Ramona from Pomona, though she now lives in the middle of Tennessee near her oldest son. Fondly, I say, because she is a dear family friend now, a surrogate grandmother to my own children, a prayer warrior, and a sister in Christ. Miss Ramona was never tall in stature, but she is a pillar of the ecumenical church catholic. I have been astounded over the years of ministry in southern California when I meet a variety of people who know this unassuming woman, and not just among the churches of my own confession (Lutheran). I have met folks from churches of several denominations who know her as a friend, a sometime fellow church member, a choir mouse, and a Sunday School teacher. Just the other day I was talking with someone who mentioned going to Sunday School when she was a kid and I asked if she could remember her teacher’s name. It was little miss Ramona from Pomona. One time, when I was introducing a visiting pastor friend to her, I mentioned how likely three-quarters of Los Angeles’ Inland Empire had been catechized by her. She said quietly, “Oh, Pastor Armstrong, please don’t say things like that.” Then I said to him, “Sometimes Jesus asks her for advice!” That is when she kicked me in the shin.
The faith of little old ladies is a wise point of meditation this week. The surrounding texts also talk faith (Habakkuk 2:4, the righteous will live by faith, and Luke 17, Jesus talking about uprooting mulberry trees). Furthermore, Paul drives it home to the young pastor Timothy, urging him to fan into flame the gift he has received (2 Timothy 1:6) by reminding him of the faith of Eunice and Lois (2 Timothy 1:5). Paul concludes the sentiment with faith talk too, faith that drives out fear, as God has not given a spirit of fear but of love, power, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).
The faith of little old ladies is great fodder for a host of reasons. Consider it a significant text in conversation with the 1 Timothy 2 bits we heard a couple of weeks ago. There, Paul proposes the revolutionary “let a woman learn,” but at the same time regulates public worship by restricting the office of proclamation and teaching to males. Public order is one thing, private reality another. Timothy was sanctified by the faith of his mother (Acts 16:1; also refer to 1 Corinthians 7:14), raised in the faith with a pedigree of little old ladies (Eunice, which means “good victory,” his mother, and Lois his grandmother). Consider the theme appropriate for the flock you likely deliver the Lord’s Word to this week. Your hearers have also been shaped and inspired by the faith of earlier generations, among whom will be special women. If your congregation is anything like mine, you also have some little old ladies in your constituency, and a sermon that highlights them might just earn you an extra deviled egg at the next potluck if you play your cards right. But the best reason to highlight the faith of little old ladies this week is because that is what the text describes, both in substance and in consequence; their faith, that is.
The substance of it, the material principle of the faith of little old ladies, is the same as that of Timothy, Paul, and all believers in Christ, and it is expressed in classic Pauline patois at 2 Timothy 1:8-10. That material principle is salvation by grace through faith, not of works. And that salvation has to be delivered, handed over like a baton in a relay race, one generation to another, teacher to disciple. It turns out, there are lots of teachers, but this is more than information exchange, more than lecture and notetaking, and more than research and discovery. It happens in relationship. Paul points out the one he has with Timothy, and the one Timothy has with his mother and grandmother. Those relationships have yielded a thing, and Paul talks about that thing in language which evokes a transfer of property, a transfer of power, or, better than transfer, a sharing in something real.
That material principle is salvation by grace through faith, not of works. And that salvation has to be delivered, handed over like a baton in a relay race, one generation to another, teacher to disciple.
A biblical sermon will observe the language Paul uses to talk about this and let that language shape the message from the pulpit. Hear how it goes here: Paul is reminded of Timothy’s sincere faith that first dwelt in Grandma Lois and Mom Eunice (1:5). The verb is enoikeō, with that oikos (meaning “house”) root. His faith has a home, has a place to live. It first dwelt in them, now it dwells in him. The transfer of faith to the next generations has not diminished the faith of the earlier giver. It is shared. Something else was given to Timothy, God’s gift, and it was delivered by Paul through the laying on of hands, a spiritual gift (1:6). If spiritual, then powerful (refer to Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8). Indeed, Paul reminds Timothy that the spirit given is one not of fear but of power, love, and self-control (1:7). This gift is the power invested in Timothy as a minister of the Gospel (see 1:8).
The faith and the powerful spiritual gift have a location, they have found a home in Timothy, and Paul repeats this language of capacity and indwelling in the last couple of verses of this pericope. At 1:12 he says the Gospel and the ministry of that Gospel, his appointment as preacher and apostle, is something that has been entrusted to him as a deposit (the Greek word for this is parathēkē), one he is able to guard (phylassō is the operative verb here). The Holy Spirit dwells (enoikeō again) in Paul and Timothy (and all believers), and Timothy is enjoined to guard (phylassō again) the deposit entrusted to him (he repeats the parathēkē vocabulary).
Both the faith Timothy has been entrusted with and the powerful spiritual gift he is encouraged to fan into flame (2 Timothy 1:6) are treasures (also see 1 Timothy 6:19-20) he is now somehow the container for. Who says the finite cannot contain the infinite? And when Paul is talking like that, I cannot help but think of how he describes it at 2 Corinthians 4:7-12:
“We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us... always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”
This is theology of the cross. It is a treasure in jars of clay, surpassing power, and faith in folks like Timothy and Paul and in little old ladies like Eunice and Lois.
Here is an important fact to hang on to for a sermon on this pericope because it confesses the Christ who is strong in our weakness, powerful in our impotence, and vibrant in our dullness, our life while we are dying. The Christ in the pericope is the Christ who saves and brings life and immortality to life (2 Timothy 1:9-10). And the way He saves is in weakness (see 2 Corinthians 12:9), exalting the low and taking down the proud, filling the hungry and sending the rich empty away. That reversal language is theology of the cross talk. It is embodied in weak, broken vessels like Paul, unlikely heroes of the faith like Timothy, and unassuming little old ladies like Eunice, Lois, and little miss Ramona from Pomona. When I am weak, then I am strong. For even the Lord Jesus showed His greatest strength in His weakness, His submission, His death for the world, His death for them, and His death for you (Philippians 2:5-11).
This relationship Timothy has with his matriarchs will come up again in a couple of weeks in the assigned epistle at 2 Timothy 3. That pericope begins with verses 14-15:
“Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings.”
The heritage, the deposit laid up for Timothy and guarded by him, is not something simply cute or sentimental. It is the stuff that saves, no more nor less than the Word of God in Christ, the God-breathed council of the Law and Gospel, profitable for reproof, correction, training, and making wise to salvation. Timothy’s teachers were the mouthpieces of God Himself; that they happened to be little old ladies is incidental to the fact. Thanks be to God that He continues to use His mouthpieces to raise up ministers of the Gospel and to encourage, correct, train, and comfort the Church of God in Christ. Direct your listener’s ears to the mouthpieces of your church, and you will find the Lord is using you and supporting your good work (1 Timothy 3:1) with other treasure houses, other jars of clay, swinging the bat in the same direction to the profit of your hearers, your church, and the Kingdom of God in Christ.
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you preaching 2 Timothy 1:1-14.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
