Inward and Outward Signs: Genesis 17:9-14

The true power of any rite is not the outward act but the change happening within.  When we gather for a wedding, it is not the reception for which we gather but God’s uniting two hearts.  When we gather for a funeral, we do not gather for the purpose of placing a human shell under the earth but to celebrate God’s care of the individual through life and into life eternal.  Rites are meant to be joyful visible expressions of an unseeable inner change.

God gives Abraham a sign of the covenant.  Abraham and Ishmael would be circumcised.  Every Hebrew boy whose parents wished the child to be a part of God’s covenant would be circumcised.

Circumcision was not new.  When God gives this sign to Abraham, Abraham is not receiving something unheard of.  We believe the Egyptians practiced circumcision for at least five-hundred years prior to Abraham’s birth.  There is some evidence that the ancient semitic people – Canaanites, Philistines, Akkadians, Moabites, etc – were also practicing circumcision.  When God gives this sign to Abraham, it’s not like He is asking Abraham to utilize an odd means of mutilating his body.

What God does is change an optional activity to one of obligation.  In other cultures, parents could choose circumcision if they wanted.  God shifts where the choice occurs.  The parents can still choose for their male child to be Hebrew.  If they made such a choice, the child must be circumcised.

Additionally, circumcision is not what brings the child into God’s family.  God called Abram out of Ur.  God gave the promise.  God touches the hearts and minds of Hebrew people, prophets, and kings.  God made the Hebrew people His family.  Circumcision is an outside demonstration of God’s inner work.

This places circumcision in the same category as Christian practices like baptism and communion.  Neither baptism by water nor taking communion saves us.  God brings us into His family.  God forgives our sins by through the faithfulness of Jesus upon the cross.  God sends His Spirit to dwell within us.  Christians baptize and participate in communion as an outward sign of God’s inner work.

Furthermore, in most circumstances the Hebrew parent makes the choice to circumcise the child.  It is also the parent who subsequently chooses to raise the child in God’s ways.  There is nothing inherently wrong with parents making choices for their children.  This very thing is God’s design for the family.  God gives family so we benefit from good decisions prior to our ability to make them for ourselves.

While the sign of circumcision is an important event, understand it for what it is.  Circumcision – like all human rites – are outward demonstrations of inner working.  Some rites, like circumcision, are obligatory demonstrations.  They remain only demonstrations, however.  The true power of any rite is not the outward act but the change happening within.

In this spirit, I pray that God’s Peace descends upon you and your family this Christmas Day.  May the inner change of Jesus Christ be outwardly visible to your friends, family, and the world today and every day.  God bless us everyone.  Merry Christmas!