The Pastor’s Pen

One of the gifts – and challenges – of Advent is that it asks us to slow down and pay attention just as everything around us speeds up. Calendars fill. To-do lists grow. The world urges us to hurry toward Christmas as if the point were simply to arrive.
But Advent keeps whispering, Wait.

This Sunday we hear the story of Joseph – quiet, steady Joseph – who is asked to say yes to a future he did not choose and could not fully understand. Scripture tells us very little about him, and maybe that’s the point. Joseph doesn’t speak a word. He listens. He trusts. And when he wakes from his dream, he does exactly what the angel of the Lord has commanded him to do.

I find Joseph’s yes both comforting and unsettling. Comforting, because it reminds me that faithfulness does not require perfect clarity – only trust. Unsettling, because Joseph’s yes changes everything about his life. His plans are disrupted. His reputation is at risk. The road ahead is anything but simple.

And yet, through his obedience, God makes a home among us.

Advent reminds us that God often works not through grand gestures, but through ordinary people who choose faithfulness over fear. Through people who listen carefully. Through people who say yes, even when the path forward is uncertain.
As we move through this final week of Advent, I invite you to consider where God might be inviting you to trust – perhaps quietly, perhaps courageously. Where might God be asking for your yes? And how might that yes make room for Emmanuel, God-with-us, to dwell more fully in your life?

May this week be filled not just with preparation, but with presence. Not just with activity, but with attention. And may we all be given the grace to say yes when God draws near.  

See you Sunday.

Blessings,
Pastor Greg
pastorgreg@lawrencevillepresbyterian.org