The disciples are in the resurrection path of totality and they have the special glasses. They are looking directly at the Son (pun entirely intended) and having an astonishingly dramatic experience. They will go and bear witness to this experience, just as Jesus tells them to do

Easter answers one question – God’s love is absolutely stronger even than death – and then immediately asks another: so now what?

Thanks be to God that we are a Good Friday people – called to see the world as it really is – broken and despised, fearful and violent, and also, always, loved and redeemed. So come – come to the foot of the cross; come in penitence; come in need… and come in hope-filled thanksgiving for the love that is stronger than sin, stronger than despair, stronger than death.

The story of Holy Week is not just another story. It is the story that makes us who we are – the formational memory of the community of the church, the Body of Christ. We don’t just tell this story – we live it, in the rituals of this week but more also – and more importantly – in our lives.

And so the question for us, as followers of Jesus, is how do we need to die – what do we need to lay down or renounce or accept – so that we can enter into eternal life – not in some otherworldly afterlife but this very day and every day to come?

This is what Lent is about – preparing ourselves for this work of self-giving AND of resurrection – it is a journey to the cross and the tomb and through to the promised Easter garden.

And through is the only way to get there. There can be no resurrection if there is no death.

Jesus may have been the one who was outwardly transfigured but it was Peter and James and John who were changed by what was revealed on that mountaintop, called to go beyond what they knew and embrace Jesus in a more complete way; to listen to him and obey his instruction to take up their own cross and journey with him down the mountain.

Readiness for a new beginning is, perhaps, the most remarkable thing about Simeon – even more remarkable than his faithfulness in waiting or his ability to recognize the Messiah in the unlikely form of the baby Jesus. He was able to release what was finished and embrace the new beginning that God had prepared; to lay down his previous role with grace and humility and hope.

But it is enough for Mary to understand that she is being asked to serve her God and her people; to participate in something worth the risk; a new chapter in the story of God’s promises. She doesn’t know everything she is saying “yes” to – but she knows who is asking and she is brave and bold and strong so she says “yes”, giving her whole self – body and soul and reputation – to the fulfilment of God’s story.

God has cast down the mighty and lifted up the lowly; God does cast down the mighty and lift up the lowly; God will cast down the mighty and lift up the lowly.

These are declarations of faith and they are powerful. They have sustained people in moments of crisis and over generations of struggle. But declarations of faith are not intended purely for comfort or sustenance. They are intended to shape lives; to direct attention and action in accordance with that faith.