Waiting: Day 19

December 18, 2025

And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child.

Luke 1:59a, English Standard Version

This is exactly where you would expect Zechariah-a priest-and Elizabeth to be, and it’s exactly what you would expect them to be doing. They are good, observant Jews who have just been blessed with a baby boy, so the little guy is going to get circumcised when he’s eight days old.

Two great truths jump out at me here. The first, as we’ll see in tomorrow’s reading, is that just as the birth is celebrated with friends and family, a boy’s circumcision is likewise an event. The community gathers and surrounds the parents and child with their love and pledges of support.

The Church is one of God’s greatest gifts to us. At its very best, the local church is a family. Bethany, the church sitting at the intersection of Lee’s Lake and Milam Roads, was my childhood spiritual home. The faces that flood my mind when I recall that place are the faces of people who were my spiritual parents and grandparents, my lifelong brothers and sisters in the Faith.

That’s what Zechariah and Elizabeth are experiencing in this moment. Little John is likely sleeping right through it-well, maybe not all of it-but he is being immersed in this family of faith as well. This picture is why I love the Church so much!

The second truth is that rituals have immense value for us. Little John was marked for life, literally, and this ritual would forever shape his identity and self-understanding. It changed him, literally. Religious rituals aren’t magical, but they are powerful. And formational. And transformational. May we never minimize what happens when we receive the Bread and Wine of Communion, when we celebrate the waters of Baptism, when we stand and recite the Creeds or sing the great hymns and songs of our Faith. Those rituals shape us, now and for eternity.