Scripture: Matthew 25:14-30 (NLT) and Luke 19:11-27
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The Text: The Parable of the Talents
“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last, dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.
*The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.*
*After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’
*The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’
*The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’ The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’
*Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’
*But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’ Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'”
This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
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The Advent Question
So the question for us on this first Advent Sunday of 2025 is this: **Are you ready for Christmas?*
Advent is far more than a countdown to December 25th. It is a sacred season of preparation for Christ’s Second Coming”the end of the world as we know it. It is also the season when we celebrate Christ’s **first** coming, his birth, when God Almighty became human. And here is the profound truth: **we prepare for both in exactly the same way.
In the parable we have just heard, the master could return at any time. This mirrors the Advent message: Christ could return at any moment, and we must be ready.
Our preparation for Christ’s return is our true celebration of his birth. In other words, we cannot really celebrate Christmas unless we are prepared for his Second Coming. Christmas and Christ’s Second Coming are two sides of the same coin.
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More Than Sentiment
Too often, we say we are celebrating Christ’s birth while we are actually celebrating our own good fortune, our way of life, or mere sentimentality. We deck the halls and exchange gifts, but our hearts remain distant from the One we claim to honor.
Yet when we truly celebrate Christ in our hearts, minds, and souls, we do his will. And we can do his will because we are given his mercy and grace. Our works flow from grace and are empowered by the Spirit, not by our own merit.
It is crucial that we remember this: **you cannot earn your salvation.** Just as the master in the parable gave the talents to the servants, we do not possess our abilities by our own accord. Salvation is a gift, not a reward.
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What Faithfulness Looks Like
Matthew 10:7-8 shows us what it means to be faithful: it means emulating the ministry of Jesus himself. We do this by proclaiming that the kingdom of God has arrived”not merely in words, but through our actions”as we feed the hungry, cure the sick, bless the meek, and serve the least of these.
When we live this way, we expand his kingdom. We multiply the talents he has given us. Then, when he returns, he will be pleased. He will say to us: “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
Now, let me be clear about what this parable is not about. It is not about becoming a celebrity singer like Ariana Grande or Taylor Swift, or a billionaire like Warren Buffett. The parable of the talents is not about excelling in the world’s measure of success.
Rather, it is about **using what we have been given”whatever that may be”to further the kingdom of God.**
When Christ returns, he will ask us one question: **What have you done to bring others into the kingdom of God?**
Luke 14:23 expresses this urgently: “The Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”
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The Third Servant’s Failure
The third servant in Jesus’ parable did virtually nothing to spread the gospel or to tell his neighbors about God. More troubling still, he seemed resentful that God did not do it himself”that God chose instead to entrust this work to his servants.
Consider Ephesians 3:10-11 (NLT): “God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places… This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places are created spirit beings”faithful and fallen angels and other spiritual forces. God’s plan is to use the church, “us” to display his wisdom to all of creation. Yet the third servant wanted nothing to do with this plan. He hid his talent. He did nothing.
Even worse, he actually expected the master to be pleased that he had not done one thing to advance the kingdom”that he still had exactly what he had been given.
I have a vivid vision of this third servant: someone who came to church every Sunday but did nothing else. He did not invite anyone into the faith. He did not share the gospel. He did not even pray for others’ salvation. He judged the hungry rather than feeding them. He simply did nothing. And Jesus calls him “wicked”and “lazy”.
Listen to the master’s devastating response: “You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.”
In other words: You could have at least pointed someone toward my kingdom. You could have done something”anything”to advocate for my kingdom. But you did nothing.
“Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
This is more than ending up with nothing. This is spiritual death. Allegorically, this servant did not accept Jesus’ gift of salvation. He squandered the most precious opportunity imaginable.
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The Advent Self-Examination
Advent is the time of year when we look at our own lives with serious honesty and evaluate how we are using what God has given us to enlarge his church. This evaluation is the litmus test of faithfulness”of whether we are truly multiplying our Master’s riches.
This is how the two faithful servants in the parable prepared for the master’s return. The third servant did nothing. His fate stands as a warning.
Advent is when we Christians must ask ourselves the hardest questions and actually listen to the answers:
– Are we ready for Christ’s return?
– Have we been faithful?
– Do we need to repent?
– Do we need to fast and pray?
– Have we shared the gospel?
– Have we fed the hungry?
– Have we visited the prisoners?
– Have we loved our enemies?
– What have we left undone?
– Have we taken risks with what God has given us to advance his kingdom, or are we hoarding what we have been given?
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The Ultimate Test
We are ready to celebrate Christmas not when the tree is up, not when the presents are wrapped, not when the turkey is served. We are ready to celebrate Christmas when we are ready for Christ’s return and not a minute sooner.
Because if we aren’t ready spiritually for his return, if we aren’t preparing spiritually for his return, we don’t really understand Christmas at all. It becomes merely a sentimental holiday, an excuse to party, a distraction from what really matters.
I once heard a minister describe his personal Advent discipline in a way I have never forgotten. He said: “The way you know you are prepared for Christmas is if you are prepared to die on December 25th.”
Every year during Advent, he asks himself: “Am I prepared to meet Jesus face to face on December 25th? Am I ready to die on Christmas Day?”
And he said, sometimes he falls short. Sometimes he needs to repent. Sometimes he needs to spend time fasting, or spend time serving and loving others more deeply. But through this yearly examination, he knows whether he is truly ready for Christmas or not.
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The Two Comings, One Readiness
That simple, penetrating question says all that needs to be said during the Advent season. It tells us exactly how to know whether we are ready to celebrate both the first and second coming of Christ.
The first coming was to prepare us for his final coming. The essential question is: Am I prepared to meet him face to face?
And we must ask further: Are the people in my territory”my neighborhood, my family, my town, my church”are they prepared to meet him face to face on Christmas Day, December 25th?
If the answer is no, then we have work to do this Advent season. Serious, joyful, urgent work.
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The Invitation and the Warning
May God prepare us all, and may we help others to know that they too have been given time to prepare. But we must speak truth: that time will not last forever.
People have been living in the Advent of Christ’s return for two thousand years. In his mercy and grace, God is giving us this time”an opportunity and invitation into life with him. This is his generosity. This is his patience. This is his love.
But the clock is always ticking. The master will return.
Are you ready for Christmas?
More importantly: Are you sure that you are ready for Christmas?
The hope we have, the only hope we truly need, is that we will be ready to meet him face to face.
So the next time someone asks you, “Are you ready for Christmas?” ask yourself instead: “Am I ready to die?”
One day Christmas will be all there is. One day we will celebrate holy communion forever together in his presence, with all the communion of Saints. That glorious day is coming.
Advent is God’s gift to us, a sacred time for us to prepare ourselves for his return. As we come forward for Holy Communion this morning, ask yourself: If I died today, would he say to me, “Well done, my good and faithful servant”? Or do I have things left to do?
If so just remember that is what Advent is for.
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Prayer
Lord, thank you for Advent. Thank you for giving us time to prepare. Thank you for the Scriptures that show us the way. Open our eyes. Soften our hearts. Make us faithful. Help us to be ready for Christmas, in your mercy and grace.
Amen.
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