This morning’s gospel includes on one level the very best advice we have on conflict resolution. The basic principles of going first to the person directly, then involving two or three witnesses, then taking it to the community make perfect sense in any context. That’s truly helpful because we are so regularly in conflict. Let’s face it, people are very difficult to get along with – not you, of course, but those other people. You know who they are.

The conflict could be within our families, in our workplaces, our neighborhoods or really in any context. The idea of trying to work it out first one-on-one saves everyone trouble, and avoids any embarrassment as well. Including two or three witnesses also keeps it pretty well contained, and helps to ensure that people are hearing each other clearly. Finally, taking it to the community as a last step offers a chance for the issue to be finally resolved.

This week we’ve got to do a “Previously on Good Shepherd” like they do on TV shows. Those of you streaming this at home can skip ahead a couple of minutes. (Just a moment, I’m buffering.)

Last week we joined Jesus and his disciples at a pagan shrine in Caesarea Philippi where Jesus asked them who they say he is. Peter responded, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus gives Peter a gold star for the day and says that is the rock upon which he will build his Church, and through the Church the Kingdom of God will take shape in the world.

This morning’s readings speak to the question of identity. Who are we, really? We tend to think of that in terms of where we were raised, what we do and other sorts of tags of what is called social location, as though we could be plotted on a map. But it’s more like an ever-shifting sea.

And identity isn’t just about us as individuals. All of those markers place us in groups and as such we take on those identities, too.  The history of those groups is our history. That can be anything from sharing joy in Lake Wales High School winning a state championship to cherishing our Declaration of Independence.

I have an older brother and three younger sisters, which could be chaotic at times and that included meals. My mum came up with a rule to cope with us having differing food tastes and preferences. We were each allowed to choose one food that we did not have to eat. Anything else, we had to eat what was on our plate.

That put me into a quandary because there were three foods I could not stand: liver, beets and Brussels sprouts. That list has changed over the years. Thanks to different recipes and shifting taste buds, I now like Brussels sprouts and I’ve made my peace with beets. No one has ever tried to coax me into eating liver. But, being English, that’s why I call her mum, she never exposed me to okra. So now I’m down to two - that I know of.

We were at Cocoa Beach last week, the same spot where we’ve gone for the last 20 years. It’s great to spend time on the beach, where the land meets the water. You smell the salt air, feel the sand and the breeze, and hear the sound of waves rolling into the shore as they have from the beginning.

I’ve been to that stretch of beach my whole life and that spot the last twenty years in a row. The wind has always come out of the east, a sea breeze, and there are usually enough waves to at least boogie-board or body surf.

That’s a lot of fun. But it can also be dangerous when the waves are big, or there are rip tides. You all get that. And it is a metaphor for life. The land is stable, orderly. The water is at once inviting, yet chaotic; extremely powerful and potentially dangerous. And there are other risks. There are always sharks, maybe jellyfish, maybe a crab pinches your toe.

People are fundamentally unique in that we continuously look at the way things are and imagine how they could and should be better. That drives us to seek change. People tend to pursue social change in two ways; persuasion and force. In today’s Gospel, Jesus introduces a third way. While Jesus certainly taught and persuaded, the Kingdom ultimately spreads because people encounter him personally.

Persuasion involves generating ideas and positions, then sharing them so that they can be evaluated, improved and enacted. For example, “We take our shoes off when we enter the house,” or “You can only drive 15 miles per hour in a school zone.”  We hope better ideas win out over time and progress follows. We hope.

Last week we heard Jesus describe God’s extravagant sharing of the Word of the Kingdom as scattering seed on all sorts of soil. This morning’s Gospel touches on one of the most challenging issues of our existence. There is other seed. Not only do we see a lot of evil, there are, apparently, evil people in the world. This is more than flawed people making bad choices. It’s real evil, evil seeds sown by the evil one, the enemy, the devil, Satan himself.

Weeds are a great analogy because we all get that. They are a persistent issue everywhere from our landscaping to the cracks in our sidewalks. Weeds are a real problem in agriculture, and the problem can cut several ways. If you don’t control them, then they can hurt the crop yield, which not only affects the farmer but also the consumer. The lower the yield, the higher the price and the more people go hungry.

This weekend we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The thirteen British colonies were barely a year into the Revolutionary War that would continue another seven years. The founding fathers and the people they represented had faith in a vision they could not see, ideals they thought were rooted in God although they were yet developing.

These built upon their conviction that all men were created equal with inalienable rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” “All men” meant all people, but of course that wasn’t true in 1776. Almost 4 million people, about 12.5% of the population were slaves. Native Americans were being steadily pushed out of their lands. Women couldn’t vote.

As you hopefully know, I lead a Bible study on Tuesday mornings which goes over the reading for the coming Sunday, usually focused on the Gospel. It’s hopefully helpful for the people who attend and watch on Facebook to dig more deeply into the passages. And it is very helpful for me. In addition to the study time to prepare, it is helpful to talk about it.

This week, I looked at it and realized this is the shortest Gospel passage we have in the three-year lectionary cycle; three verses, 88 words. At first glance we readily see the familiar agency that Jesus imparts to his Apostles, his “sent ones,” which extends also to those given the spiritual gift of prophecy, which is not fortune telling but speaking God’s will, as well as the righteous who are doers of God’s will.

We had a wonderful Vacation Bible School this past week. We had over thirty children participate. That included almost all of our congregation’s children who were in town, plus a number of friends and other kids from the community. We also had a large number of middle and high school youth volunteer to help and of course a strong group of volunteers. We must thank co-leaders Amy Gammons and Meghan McLaughlin who led it all wonderfully.

On Thursday, our theme was “God is Love”, and we talked about how God’s greatest demonstration of love is Jesus dying on the cross to save us from our sins, and was raised from the dead for our salvation. That is what theologians refer to as, “The Big Enchilada.” It is the core of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ. We teach it again and again with the hope and expectation that it will sink into the very foundations of who these kids are. God loves you. God saved you. God will never let you go. If the kids remember nothing else from this week, we hope and pray they will never forget that.