Advent2025 Waiting With Matthew 3

Day 3: Waiting in Obedience. Today we reflect on Matthew 1:19 - "Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly." Join us this Advent as we sit with the waiting in the first 5 chapters of Matthew's Gospel.

Transcript

Hello my friends.

This is Mark Gladman,

Also known as Brother Frederick James,

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Monk in Docs,

Welcoming you to Day 3 of our Advent 2025 Reflections,

Waiting in Matthew.

And today our focus text comes from Matthew chapter 1 verse 19.

Her husband Joseph,

Being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace,

Planned to dismiss her quietly.

So as we enter into this time of waiting on God to speak to our hearts,

I invite you just to simply sit,

To still and settle yourself,

To breathe deeply in and out as we ask God to open our ears,

Our minds and our hearts today.

As you read the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel,

There's a moment that's so quiet you might miss it.

The angels don't trumpet,

There's no thunder from heaven,

It's just the stillness of one man wrestling with what is right.

It happens before the dream,

Before the angel's reassurance.

It happens in the darkness of Joseph's own thoughts.

Mary is with child and Joseph knows the child is not his.

So the big question,

What does righteousness look like now,

In this moment,

In this circumstance?

What does obedience mean when everything familiar begins to unravel?

Now Matthew calls Joseph a just man.

In Greek,

The words that's used is dikaios,

A word that means not only law-abiding but aligned with the heart of God.

In Joseph's world,

The law would have allowed him to expose Mary,

To clear his own name,

To preserve his honour,

But the deeper righteousness of Joseph is gentler than justice's punishment.

It's mercy.

He chooses quiet over accusation,

Compassion over correctness.

Before Joseph even hears from the angel,

He already reveals the character of God,

The one who always leans towards mercy first.

Advent waiting often feels like this,

A time when there's very little clarity,

Or at least the clarity hasn't fully arrived,

And when all we can do is listen to God in the dark.

Notice that Joseph doesn't rush to act,

He waits,

He turns the situation over in silence,

And somewhere in that silence,

God finds him.

Before the angel speaks,

There's a long human pause.

It's the pause between what we understand and what we can't yet see.

That pause is sacred.

It's where the soul becomes spacious enough for God's word to enter.

Most of us want obedience to mean certainty.

We want divine direction printed in bold text,

But the kind of obedience Matthew shows us here doesn't begin with knowing.

It begins in the humility of someone willing to wait for the deeper truth.

Now when Joseph finally sleeps that night,

The angel comes,

Not in daylight logic,

But in the dark intimacy of a dream.

A lot of people believe that dreams are the language of the soul,

And certainly in Scripture often they're how God speaks,

And probably because it's when we're sleeping that our defenses are quiet.

The angel says,

Joseph son of David,

Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,

For the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

In the language of Joseph hears what his heart already hoped might be true,

That God is still at work in what looked like a disaster.

Waiting on obedience often means trusting that what seems like failure may actually be divine formation.

It's in the confusing,

Ambiguous spaces of life,

And the Spirit does some of its holiest work.

Joseph's righteousness isn't about rule-keeping,

It's about reverence,

A quiet reverence for what God might be doing beyond his own understanding.

He could have acted publicly,

But instead he chooses to obey privately.

He becomes in his silence the guardian of mystery.

Sometimes obedience looks like dramatic action,

But more often than not it looks like staying still until the next step becomes clear.

Our modern world is addicted to motion.

We fill our waiting with noise,

Our uncertainty with distractions.

The story of Joseph calls us to holy restraint,

To the sacred rhythm of pause,

Pray,

Discern,

Respond.

This is Advent's kind of obedience,

The obedience of waiting until love shows you what to do next.

Joseph's yes doesn't make headlines.

He doesn't preach or prophesy,

He simply takes Mary as his wife,

Names the child Jesus,

And for the most part disappears quietly into the background of salvation history.

But think about this,

Without Joseph's obedience,

Mary's courage would have been left exposed,

The child's safety would have been at risk,

The holy family would have crumbled before the story even began.

Waiting and obedience is never passive,

It's active trust.

It's a way of aligning one's life so that God's promise can take flesh.

Advent reminds us that obedience and waiting belong together.

To obey is to wait for God to act in and through us.

To wait is to trust that our obedience,

However small,

Matters in the vastness of God's unfolding plan.

And finally,

Notice how Matthew tells Joseph's story without a single spoken word.

Joseph never says anything.

He listens,

He dreams,

He acts,

But he never speaks.

Maybe,

Maybe Matthew's teaching us that real obedience doesn't need an announcement.

It's content to move quietly in rhythm with grace.

In an age of performance and platforms,

Joseph models the holiness of hiddenness.

Joseph is content to play a small role in a story that,

I think deep down,

He knows is infinitely bigger than himself.

To wait and obedience,

Then,

Is to stand still in the presence of God's unfolding mystery and to let our yes be enough.

And so,

In the stillness for a moment,

I invite you to hold in your heart and in your mind that thing from today's reflection that you know you need to sit with,

Perhaps comfortably and peacefully,

Perhaps uncomfortably,

As we pray together.

God of silence and mercy,

You spoke to Joseph not in thunder but in dream.

You trusted your promise to his quiet strength.

Teach us the wisdom of waiting obedience,

To act only when our hearts are aligned with your peace,

To listen longer than we speak,

And to trust that your purposes are working even when we cannot see.

When our plans fall apart,

Let us find you hidden in the confusion.

When the next step is uncertain,

Give us courage to remain faithful in the dark and form in us the patience of Joseph that we too may become protectors of the mystery,

Guardians of your presence in the world.

Through Christ our Lord,

The And so,

As you go from this time into the remainder of your day,

May your waiting become a sanctuary where God can speak.

May obedience rise in you,

Not from fear but from love.

And may you find,

As Joseph did,

That every quiet yes carries the promise of new creation.

And may God's grace,

Peace,

And love go with you today and every day.

Amen.

Peace be with you.

Reviews

This really resonates with me, trying to let my yes carry me to the truth in my life. Thank you 🙏🏻

Thank you 🙏🏻
May St Joseph’s selfless trust be our guide🛐His yes,along with Mary’s, was the foundation of our journey.

And also with you. 🙏🏾
I’m really enjoying the series. Thank you for all the effort you have put into this. ♥️

Thank you for bringing a new perspective on Advent🙏🏻

I have not reflected before on Joseph’s quiet “yes” in his faith, his integrity, care and protection for and of Mary—and how I may be called to do likewise in my own quiet and small ways. Thank you!🙏🏼