Sermon for October 5, 2025

Readings:

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4
Psalm 37:1-10
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved child:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 

I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. 

I wanted you to hear those words from Saint Paul’s epistle to Timothy again this morning, because sometimes I think we are so fixated on the big picture or the major names or themes in a scripture passage that we often miss smaller details and characters that have a story all their own to tell. So, let’s talk for a moment this morning about Lois and Eunice. They are mentioned in passing in Paul’s letter. “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.” Who are Lois and Eunice? They don’t get much press in church history. Their names are not widely known or celebrated. Churches aren’t dedicated to them. I have been to plenty of churches named after Saint Paul, and I have heard of plenty of churches named after Saint Timothy. But I have never seen a church called Saint Lois. I have never seen a church dedicated to Saint Eunice. And it’s a shame really. Someone needs to go and start a church and call it Saint Lois or Saint Eunice. We don’t really know who Lois and Eunice are. All we know is that Lois was a woman of faith who passed her faith on to her daughter Eunice. And Eunice herself would become a woman of faith who would pass her faith on to her son Timothy. It’s a boring little detail and hardly worth mentioning, right? Insignificant?

Except, maybe it isn’t an insignificant detail. Because if it weren’t for Lois and Eunice, there would be no Saint Timothy. This faith that Timothy has, this faith that Paul praises and celebrates, it didn’t just materialize out of the air. It has a genealogy. It was handed down to him. Timothy’s faith came from his mother Eunice. And Eunice’s faith came from her mother Lois. This is a faith that Paul is willing to die for. He describes it as a treasure that needs to be guarded. But it is also a treasure that gets handed down from one generation to the next. It is a gift that we receive and it is a gift that we give. Sometimes, like with Timothy, we get it from our parents or grandparents. Sometimes we get it from other people in our lives: distant relatives, friends, neighbors, or even strangers, but none of us, not one of us, came to faith entirely on our own. We all had someone who shared the gospel with us, or shared their faith in God, in some way. Maybe it wasn’t some great sermon. Maybe it was through their actions or their prayers or their hope or their perseverance, but somehow, someway, if you are here today then someone has planted a seed of faith within you. Someone shared their faith with you. Who was it? Maybe there are multiple people in your life that you can think of that shared their faith with you. If so, then you are blest. You are blest because you have been given a treasure. Don’t forget that. You have been given a treasure. The treasure is this living hope inside of you that keeps reminding you that the struggles of this world are not all that there is. The treasure is the conviction that there is a God that is worth trusting in, more than we trust in anything else in this world. The treasure is the belief that love is worth fighting for. The treasure is the promise that death is not the end for us. That treasure is a powerful thing that even in the tiniest amount can transform our lives and change the way we look at the world. Think about how the belief in the Resurrection must have given Lois and Eunice strength. Think about the troubles that those women must have seen in their lives. They would have known Psalm 37 very well. They would have know of God’s promise to deal with evildoers and set the world right, but in the Resurrection that would have seen God in action. They would have seen God keeping his promises to his children and that was a treasure to them that they had to pass on. You have been given a treasure too, and the treasure is not this building, it’s not a place or an inanimate object. It is a living thing inside of you. I think it is important to note that Paul says the faith lived within Timothy, and lived within Eunice, and lived within Lois. The faith is a living thing. Living things grow when you feed them and nurture them; they wilt and dwindle and may eventually die when you neglect them. That is why Paul challenged Timothy to rekindle that gift, that treasure that was withing him. We have been given a precious and powerful thing, but it needs guarding, it needs regular rekindling and it needs to be handed on. 

Today is not Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. It isn’t All Souls’ day or All Saints’ day. It isn’t even Grandparent’s day. But a couple names in a single verse of one of Paul’s letters is a good enough reminder that we need to take time now and then to give thanks to God for the Loises and Eunices in our own life. Without them and their witness and their sacrifices we wouldn’t have the faith that we have. They have surely given us a treasure. 

They only get a passing mention this morning and we know nothing else about them, but if it wasn’t for Lois and Eunice, Timothy would not have had the faith and Paul wouldn’t have had anyone to write to.