Mark 8::27-38

Pentecost +15 - Year B

Mark 8:27-38

When we find stories like this it is sometimes helpful to retell it from end to start and see what new emphasis comes into view.

Here we might hear Jesus asking,"Have you glimpsed glory and holy in me?" As with all folks, even our "enemies", we can probably say, "Yes."

Then comes an intriguing question - do you find yourself ashamed in the presence of glory and holy? All too often we are more scared of our strengths than our weaknesses.

To glimpse glory and holy in another and in ourself is to glimpse a fuller life available to both of us and all. It is appropriate to ask, "What wouldn't you give for such a glimpsed possibility?" Whatever it is that would keep you from recognizing a glimpse of fuller life and moving closer to it will be your fear, your stuck place. This is a wonderful diagnostic tool.

Now we can more fruitfully journey together toward glory and holy by picking up our fear and carrying it with us.

Peter identified his stuckness as being three-fold - suffering, death, and new life (each and all together).

Even so, having glimpsed glory and holy in Jesus and thus maybe in himself, he can name a source of a glimpse of glory and holy as Messiah beyond anything else he had experienced.

So, in whom do you see glory and holy? An iconoc Jesus, yourself, a loved one, an enemy or other? This helps us avoid the confusion, misunderstanding, or inconsistency of Peter and claim our glimpse of glory and holy. This same claiming helps Jesus in his naming of his journey to deal with suffering, death, and new life in light of his glimpse of glory and holy.