Kyle Dresback

Friends,

Having come fairly recently to the Prayer Book, I continue to be surprised by—and grateful for—its wisdom. 

Today I’m especially grateful that the lectionary places the Parable of the Talents before us during the season of Advent—a season defined by waiting.

This parable (Matthew 25:14-30) can be a hard nut for modern readers to crack. I have often encountered it when it conveniently serves a particular message, perhaps on Stewardship Sunday (“give without fear”) or Youth Sunday (“go use your ‘talents’”). 

But the rush to find a go-to practical lesson may prevent us from hearing the parable on its own terms, and from considering a deeper purpose.

Reading it this time, I was struck by how naturally it fits in Advent: This is a parable about servants who must make decisions while waiting for the master’s return. In a subtle and clever way, Advent drops us into the middle of this story and invites us to feel our way around the servants’ decisions and motivations—their hopes and fears. It presses us to explore the uncertainty that defines waiting. 

Seen this way, the parable asks bigger, more searching questions: How do we wait faithfully for the coming king? What does hopeful waiting look like? Where do we get distracted, complacent, or forgetful? 

Faithful waiting may indeed involve being good stewards or using our talents, but it does not begin there. An Advent reading of this parable keeps us oriented toward the coming kingdom, rather than confining it to this or that “practical lesson.” We are given a richer text to draw from.

This Advent season in our own family has included the full range: harried mornings, joyful household liturgies, and unexpected grief. There’s much that helps us remember and much that tempts us to forget. Still, the truth remains: Jesus is coming.

Let us wait faithfully.

In Christ,

—Kyle