WAITING: Preface and Day 1 November 30, 2025

Preface

Centuries ago, some smart people developed the liturgical calendar, a format ordering the rhythm of church life. Christmas and Easter form the focus of each year, and each is preceded by a season of spiritual preparation. Lent leads to Easter, and Advent is the four Sundays prior to Christmas Day.

Beginning just after Thanksgiving, Advent lasts less than 30 days, roughly a month, but any kid will tell you it’s the longest month of the year. Wait, wait, wait, as the days leading to Christmas drag by.

But that waiting time is important. That’s why those smart people set it up the way they did. All that waiting, you see, is time to get ready. Baseball players have Spring Training. Doctors have medical school and residency. Soldiers and sailors go to Boot Camp. And Christians need our time, slow and tedious and downright frustrating as it can be.

This year, we have 25 days of Advent beginning on Sunday November 30 and ending on Christmas Eve. Twenty-five days. That’s not really very many. But it’s enough, particularly if we use the waiting well.

I invite you to spend these 25 days focusing on four people-two couples-who waited with anticipation for that first Christmas. The first is Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, and the second is the Holy Family, Mary and Joseph. Over the next 25 days, we’ll discover just how normal and ordinary those four people were. And we’ll see how normal those days leading up to the first Christmas were. Yes, there were a couple of spectacular interruptions, but much of it was just . . . waiting.

And boy did God show up!

DAY 1 – Sunday November 30, 2025

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren,

and both were advanced in years.

Luke 1:5-7

He’s a priest, and she’s a preacher’s wife. They’re just the kind of folks who make a community strong, the folks you want to live next door. They’re moral and religious, and they’re getting up there in years. Advanced is how the Bible puts it.

No kids. Just the two of them growing old together.

That’s Zechariah and Elizabeth. Doesn’t sound like a flashy life, does it? No great moments to share on social media. No big news to have the neighbors talking and getting jealous. Nothing much to impress everybody at the high school reunion.

They're about as ordinary as you can get. Pass them on the street and you probably won't even notice them. Boring. That's how a lot of people would describe them. Take a quick look at what Luke says about them:

Righteous before God.

Walking blamelessly.

In all the commandments and statues of the Lord.

That kind of life doesn't make headlines around town, but it’s a different story in heaven.