When I was in high school, I cheated on a spelling test. I looked at the answers of the student next to me. Fortunately, or not, her answers were correct. When the teacher returned our grades, mine was an "A." The teacher added a note. "Do you think you deserve this grade?" it asked. I told her I did not.

In today's Gospel reading, we are confronted with the figure of John the Baptist as he challenges people to turn their lives around in preparation for the arrival of the Messiah. A series of people come before John and ask "What should we do?"

"Whoever has two cloaks," John says, "should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise." To a tax collector John says, "Stop collecting more than what is prescribed." To a soldier he says, "Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages."

Apparently it was acceptable for tax collectors to overcharge people and pocket the gain, and for soldiers to extort or frame people in order get some extra income. It is instructive that when people ask for specific instructions about how to prepare for the coming Christ, he doesn't tell them how to think or what to believe in their minds. He tells them to change the way they live, to not simply adopt the values of the culture that accepts selfishness, dishonesty, and manipulation. John challenges us to live by a higher standard of honesty, integrity and respect for our neighbors.

Of course there are many practices in our culture that are socially acceptable that we would do well to question. Certainly most of us have more than one coat in the closet. Ignoring the needs of the poor while we stockpile food and clothing is commonplace. Bending the truth for political or economic gain has practically become an art form.

Advent challenges us to allow Jesus to enter our world and our lives by changing the way we live. Whether it is coats, cash, envy, anger or something else we are storing in order to feed our insecurities or our egos, we are called to live by a different standard. We are called to challenge the prevailing wisdom that celebrates self-absorption and self protection, and that turns a blind eye to ill-gotten gains.

Today Jesus might challenge me with the question "Do you think you deserve this money, this career, this home, and these possessions?" The answer, of course, is that I do not. Not because I cheated to get anything, but because nothing ultimately belongs to me because of any moral superiority on my part. I too am called to share with those who have nothing.

This is what the Gospel is all about. It is not about how we think or feel or talk. It is about how we live. We must live by a different set of rules than what our culture promotes or accepts. That is how we prepare the way of the Lord into our lives.

Bill Peatman writes from Napa.