A Holy Priesthood: One Year Bible Reading for February 8

 Today we read about priestly garments in the One Year Bible readings from the following passages:

Exodus 28:1-43
Matthew 25:31-26:13
Psalm 31:9-18
Proverbs 8:12-13

And in the verses from Exodus, we see that God has given Moses the directions to create special clothing for the priests that He calls out from the people to offer the sacrifices to God. The clothing they wore was intended to be different from what the normal person wore every day, to set them apart as holy.

Now there are two things we can take from this. One is that God continues to call priests to be holy and set apart from the "unwashed masses" (see what I did there?) and so calls them to wear garments that are different from what normal people wear everyday. My brother Brian is a priest, and when he wears his Roman collar in public, he is treated not just as one man or one priest, but as the church. When he smiles at someone on the street (as he often does), that person sees the church smiling at them. So wearing these special garments in itself is a calling to be different and loving and holy.

Second, we are ALL called to be different. As Christians, we are called by God to live our lives in a way that makes people go, "What is it about you that's different? Why aren't you afraid like everyone else? How come you're so patient? Why were you so nice to that guy?" So that we can share the love of God with them.

God, thanks for calling us to be different, whether we dress funny or not.