Manson's Memo 3/24

It’s an excellent year for California Golden Poppies. With all the rain we’ve had this winter, they have bloomed in abundance out around Lancaster and Palmdale. Some years, when it’s dry, the poppies can only be found in little bunches here and there. This year whole hillsides are full of them.

The weekend Jane and I went up to see them, people were parked by the side of the road long before we got to the State Reserve. At the Reserve, you’re supposed to stay on the pathways and wander through the fields enjoying the beauty. And it’s good to have such a place so that the poppies can thrive without the harm that comes from thousands of people walking on them. But out in the fields outside the reserve, people were out among the poppies enjoying them up close and personal.

Both experiences are worthwhile and valuable. But they are different. In the Reserve, the poppies are something that we can admire, but not really be with. It’s a very objective experience. When you get out and walk among them, carefully stepping over them, or sitting by them while someone takes your picture, you are taking part in a subjective experience – you discover that you and the poppies are sharing this corner of the world together.

As we approach Good Friday and Easter, we may think that these are objective experiences. We come to church and see Christ upon the cross and look into the empty tomb. Terrible and wonderful, awe inspiring, but not really a part of our world.

It is better to remember that these days are subjective in nature. The cross and empty tomb are not something we visit, but something that transforms our world, just as the poppies transform those hillsides. As we consider God’s work in the cross and Resurrection, we need to remember that in Christ, God shared this corner of the world with us. At the foot of the cross and peering into the empty tomb, we begin to share in God’s Kingdom.