In what I believe will be one of our more powerful gatherings of the year, this Sunday we take a hard look at what we are ashamed of. Perhaps nothing impacts our own identities more than who it is we "hang out" with. We want to be seen as cool and popular, so we strive to be seen with, well, the cool and popular. Maybe we even have some public friends (the ones we want to be seen with) and some private friends (the ones we invite to our homes, but not out for dinner). Who do you want to be identified with? Or identified as? And does it matter? As we prepare for our annual baptism gathering in a couple of weeks, a question echoes across the centuries that each of us must answer: Who do you want to be identified with and who are you ashamed of? It matters...it really matters.