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THAT JOHN FELLOW: HE'S UH...DIFFERENT

NORMAL IS HIGHLY OVERRATED. One of the things I love about our parish's patron, St. John the Baptist, is that he was never concerned with being "normal." He dared to be different, to stand out from the world around him.

Take his wardrobe, for instance. In St. Matthew's Gospel, he is described like this: "John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather girdle around his waist." (Mt. 3:4a) Now, such a get-up is certainly out of place in 2008, say, on the runway of a New York fashion show. But John's attire was equally eccentric in his own day. Camel hair was not the first century fashion; in fact, it was about eight-hundred and fifty years out of date-so very bc! You see, John was deliberately dressing the way the prophet Elijah is described in 2 Kings 1:8. He did this to be different, so that his prophetic life and message would stand out against the backdrop of first century, "contemporary," society.

And then there was his diet. "His food was locusts and wild honey." (Mt. 3:4b). The reason Matthew published this bizarre bill-of-fare was to show St. John as a man of singular focus and commitment. While most people (then and now) seek to maximize their income and their options, John responded to a call that put him in the desert, where bread was scarce and income non-existent. John's dinner was different, consisting only of what was available and what was free.

This month ushers in Advent, a season that is uniquely "John the Baptist time." In Advent, John bursts onto the scene in our Eucharistic readings, described as "the Voice" who cries out in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the Lord!" In a sense, it's a word that calls us to different, to stand out as God's people in the world. Take December, for instance. While most folks are concerned with concerts and parties, shopping and festivities, the Church calls her people to concern themselves with Christ's coming. We are exhorted to slow down, take stock, and humble ourselves. We are called to "prepare the way of the Lord" by looking within, looking at our hearts and lives to assess whether or not we are people marked by the kind of faith, hope, and love that are in such short supply in our world. We are called in our first Advent collect to "Cast away the works of darkness" that we too often see around us, and "put upon us the armor light." We are called to be different.

The fantastic novelist Flannery O'Conner once penned, only half tongue-in cheek: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd." But this is what we see throughout Scripture! God's people are called to be different. They are called to be aliens and exiles in the world. (1 Peter 2:11) They are called to be holy as God is holy. (Lev. 11:4) They are called to transcend the "normal" values of the world, being a people like God himself whose goodness and grace shines like stars in the night sky.

Years ago I came across a quote by Cardinal Emmanule Suhard, the Archbishop of Paris during the Second World War. It goes like this: "To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up. To be a witness means to be a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that your life would not make sense if God did not exist."

How about you? As you live your life in the world, will others see you as somehow different this December? Does your life "make sense" apart from God? Does knowing Jesus Christ allow you to offer others something better: truth over confusion, humility over pride, righteousness over "going along to get along"? Or, are you content with being normal?

St. John wasn't, and neither am I. In this new year of our life together, I hoping to be a bit more...different.