Our Scripture for Sunday is Mark 8:27-38. In it ~ after talk much about what everyone else is saying about Jesus ~ Peter names Jesus as the Messiah.

This got me wondering about the importance of names. How important was it that Peter named Jesus Messiah? What difference did identifying Jesus in that way make to those early followers? To us today? And what difference does it make that we name ourselves Christian? It seems to me that naming is a form of truth-telling. There is something in the act of 'saying it out-loud.'

If we follow the story, we see that Peter gets in trouble even after his bold pronouncement. He didn't quite understand what it meant for Jesus to be the Messiah. Yet he was willing to go out on a limb in faith. How often do we take a chance and speak the truth?