Unashamed: The Courage to Forgive and Proclaim

 Unashamed: The Courage to Forgive and Proclaim

A Sermon on 2 Timothy 1:1-14 and Luke 17:1-10 – Alan Swartz
October 5, 2025 – EUMC and BCUMC (posted 11/5/2025)

When Paul sat down to write his second letter to Timothy, he was in chains. A prisoner in Rome, facing an uncertain future, writing to a young pastor who was struggling with his own fears and doubts. And when Jesus spoke the words we heard from Luke’s Gospel, he was on the road to Jerusalem – walking deliberately toward the cross that awaited him there.

Both of these moments – Paul in prison, Jesus on the road – remind us that faithful discipleship has always been costly. It requires courage. Not the kind of courage that comes from our own strength or willpower, but the kind that flows from God’s grace at work within us.

Today we’re exploring what it means to live unashamed as followers of Jesus – unashamed in two specific ways that challenge us deeply: the courage to forgive, again and again, and the courage to proclaim the gospel, even when it’s uncomfortable.

The Gift We’ve Been Given

Paul begins his letter by reminding Timothy of something precious: “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” (2 Timothy 1:5).

Timothy didn’t come to faith in a vacuum. He had a grandmother who prayed. He had a mother who taught him the scriptures. Before Timothy ever made his own decision to follow Jesus, God’s grace was already at work in his life through the faithful witness of those who loved him.

This is what we in the Wesleyan tradition call prevenient grace – the grace that goes before us, preparing our hearts, working in us even before we’re aware of it. God was pursuing Timothy through Lois and Eunice long before Timothy knew to pursue God.

But here’s what Paul wants Timothy to understand: that inherited faith, that gift passed down through generations, needs to be rekindled. “For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline” (1:6-7).

Notice what Paul says: the Holy Spirit doesn’t produce cowardice in us. The Spirit produces power – the power to witness. The Spirit produces love – the love that forgives and serves. The Spirit produces self-discipline – the strength to remain faithful when everything around us says to compromise or hide.

Timothy had the gift. He had the Holy Spirit dwelling within him. But gifts need to be used. Fires need to be tended. And Paul is writing because he senses that Timothy’s flame is flickering.

Unashamed of the Gospel

Then Paul gets to the heart of his concern: “Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God” (1:8).

Don’t be ashamed of Jesus. Don’t be ashamed of me, even though I’m in chains. Join me in suffering.

This isn’t exactly the kind of motivational speech we’re used to hearing, is it? We want Paul to say, “Follow Jesus and your life will be blessed and comfortable.” Instead he says, “Follow Jesus and you might end up where I am – in prison for proclaiming his name.”

But then Paul reminds Timothy – and us – of the reason we can live unashamed: “God saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (1:9).

Here’s the foundation of everything: we are saved by grace. Not by our performance. Not by our eloquence. Not by our courage. Grace came to us before we did anything to deserve it, and grace sustains us now.

But notice Paul doesn’t separate being saved from being called. God “saved us and called us with a holy calling.” In the Wesleyan tradition, we understand that salvation is never just about getting our ticket to heaven punched. God’s grace justifies us – makes us right with God – and then that same grace begins to sanctify us, to make us holy, to transform us into people who can love like Jesus loved.

We’re saved by grace for something: for holiness, for witness, for mission. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians... “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God  –  not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.”“ (Eph 2:8-10, NRSVue)

Paul himself embodies this confidence: “I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him” (1:12).

Even in chains, Paul is not ashamed. Because he knows Jesus. And knowing Jesus changes everything.

The Courage to Forgive

Now let’s turn to the Gospel reading, because Jesus is about to tell us what this unashamed life actually looks like in practice.

“Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Occasions for sin are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come! It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to sin.’’“ (Luke 17:1-2)

Then, he talks about forgiveness: “If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive” (Luke 17:3-4).

Seven times in one day. The same offense. The same person. And we must forgive.

Let’s be honest – this is hard. This might be the hardest thing Jesus asks of us. Because forgiveness is costly. It requires us to acknowledge the hurt, but then to release our right to revenge, to keep our hearts open to someone who has wounded us repeatedly.

And, somehow, this is related to the idea of not being the cause of another’s sin.

Can our failure to forgive cause another to sin?

Can our hard-heartedness help turn the hearts of others to stone?

When Jesus calls us to follow him he means we are to imitate him. We are to love as he loves. We are to forgive as he forgives.

The disciples know this is hard. That’s why they immediately cry out, “Increase our faith!” (17:5). They know they don’t have what it takes to forgive like this on their own.

And Jesus’ response is fascinating: “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you” (17:6).

Jesus isn’t saying they need more faith. He’s saying that even the tiniest faith – faith the size of a seed – can do the impossible when it trusts in God’s power. The point is not the quantity of your faith, but the object of your faith. It’s about placing your tiny, genuine trust in the immeasurable power of God.

Jesus is telling his disciples that they do have the faith needed, but they don’t want to apply that faithful response to forgiveness. The fact is, we too often WANT to hold on to our hurt. We don’t want to forgive.

Early in my ministry I received a letter from someone who was critical of something I did. I felt that the letter was an attack on my character and I just fumed over it. I held on to the letter, keeping in my desk drawer, letting the anger simmer beneath the surface.

It was several years later that I realized the harm this was doing to me. I took the letter and tore it up. I prayed to the Lord to be freed from the anger and frustration that it caused. I forgave the person who wrote the letter.

The Lord answered my prayer and freed me from the letter’s bondage in my life.

Forgiveness is impossible in our own strength. But with even mustard-seed faith in God’s grace, we can do what seems impossible. We can forgive. We can love our enemies. We can keep our hearts soft when everything in us wants to harden them.

In our Wesleyan tradition, we believe that Christian perfection – being perfected in love – is possible not because we’re capable of it on our own, but because God’s grace empowers us to love like Jesus loved. And nowhere is that love more radical than in forgiveness.

When we forgive, we’re not saying what happened was okay. We’re not excusing sin. Notice Jesus says, “If there is repentance, you must forgive.” Repentance matters. But when repentance comes, grace must be ready.

When we forgive, we participate in God’s own character. We become witnesses to the gospel we proclaim.

Servants Who Have Done Their Duty

Then Jesus tells this strange little parable about servants: “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’” (17:7-10).

This parable makes us uncomfortable, and it should. Jesus is deliberately using the image of servanthood – even slavery – to make a point about our relationship with God.

We don’t forgive seven times a day and then expect God to owe us something. We don’t proclaim the gospel and then demand a reward. We don’t obey and then present God with a bill for services rendered.

We are servants who have simply done our duty.

Now, this might sound like bad news, but actually it’s deeply liberating. Because if we can’t earn God’s favor through our obedience, then we also can’t lose God’s favor through our failures. Grace is still grace. We’re saved not because of our works but because of God’s purpose and grace in Christ Jesus.

But here’s where the Wesleyan tradition helps us hold two truths together: We don’t earn grace, but grace transforms us into people who joyfully obey. We work out our salvation with fear and trembling, yes, but it’s God who works in us to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).

Sanctification is both gift and task. We cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work in us, not to earn salvation, but because we’ve already received it.

We forgive not to make God love us, but because God’s love is already making us into forgiving people.

We proclaim the gospel not to earn rewards, but because we can’t help but share the treasure we’ve received.

Living Unashamed Today

So, what does it mean for us to live unashamed today?

It is about living the gospel we proclaim! We are not sharing a self-help seminar or a political ideology. We are proclaiming that death itself has been defeated! How can we be ashamed of that? Our courage rests not in a clever argument, but in a person, and in a victory he has already won.

It’s not about getting into someone’s face. It’s not about posting and reposting some clever meme or telling others how they are wrong. It’s about advocating God’s agenda. It is about sharing the Good News with the poor, the hopeless, and the hurting.

So, why can we be unashamed? What is the ground of our courage? Paul takes us to the very foundations of eternity: God “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” (2 Timothy 1:9)

Paul’s words to Timothy are for us too: rekindle the gift. Don’t let the flame go out. God has given us a spirit not of cowardice but of power, love, and self-discipline.

Living unashamed also means naming who we need to forgive. Is there someone who has hurt you – maybe repeatedly – and you’re still holding onto that hurt? Jesus isn’t asking you to forget what happened or to trust someone who hasn’t proven trustworthy. But he is asking you to release the debt, to stop rehearsing the offense, to let the Holy Spirit soften what you’ve hardened.

This is impossible on your own. But you don’t have to do it on your own. The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.

And living unashamed means serving with joy and humility, knowing we can’t earn what we’ve already been freely given. We serve not to prove ourselves but to participate in God’s mission. We give not to obligate God but because generosity is what grace produces in us.

Conclusion

Friends, we serve a God who is not ashamed of us. Even when we’ve failed, even when we’ve been fearful, even when we’ve withheld forgiveness or hidden our light, God is not ashamed to call us his children.

And if God is not ashamed of us, we need not be ashamed of him.

The same grace that saved us empowers us now. The same Spirit that Paul commended to Timothy lives in us. The same Jesus who walked to Jerusalem and died on the cross for us now calls us to take up our cross and follow.

This week, I want to challenge you: Name one person you need to forgive, and ask the Holy Spirit for mustard-seed faith to do it. Name one person you need to share your testimony with, and trust that God will give you the words. Name one person who needs to be touched by the grace of God and be that touch of grace in their lives.

Rekindle the gift. Fan the flame. Live unashamed – forgiving freely and proclaiming boldly.

Because this is what we were saved for. This is the holy calling we’ve received. Not according to our works, but according to God’s grace, which empowers us to do what once seemed impossible.

This calls for ongoing sanctification: a growing holiness that both guards against sin and embodies the grace with which we freely forgive. It also highlights our gracious ability: that forgiveness is a decision repeated as long as grace calls us to restore relationships.

A picture emerges of the Christian life as marked by three key traits:

·         Unashamed courage rooted in the Holy Spirit’s power to live with the humility of Jesus, to proclaim the gospel, and endure suffering without shame.

·         Repeated forgiveness as a spiritual discipline that requires the strength of grace and the humility of servants.

·         Faithful stewardship of God’s call, guarding and sharing the gospel with love and self-discipline.

Our challenge, as followers of Christ, is to embody this unashamed life. Like Timothy, we must rekindle the Spirit’s gifts within us, resisting fear and discouragement. Like Jesus’ disciples, we must forgive continuously and serve humbly.

Thanks be to God!

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let us pray...
Gracious God, fan into flame the gifts you have placed within us. Help us to guard the gospel, forgive without counting the cost, and proclaim your truth with bold humility. May your Spirit empower our every act of love and our every word of testimony, that we might be unashamed in our faith and our witness, for your glory. Amen.