Not Forgotten

March 17

Readings – IS 49:8-15; JN 5:17-30

As the saying goes, “I am not sure who needs to hear this but…”  So for whoever needs to hear this, God has not forgotten you.

The passage from Isaiah starts off by saying all the ways that God will restore us, come to our aid and release us.  The people of Israel say, “Ummmm, that’s funny because it seems like you have totally forgotten us.  I mean, look where we are (prisoners in Babylon).” 

And God utters the famous line, “Can a mother forget her child…[and] even should she forget, I will never forget you.”

Just take that line in slowly.  God has not forgotten you.  No matter what you are going through these days.  God is with you.

This is, in part, what got Jesus in trouble with the religious authorities.  He went around to all of the people whom society had assumed that God had forgotten and said to them, “You are beloved in God’s eyes!”  And then he said things like he says today to the religious leaders, “You don’t even KNOW God because if you did, you’d see God’s work in the work I’m doing.” Ouch!

Jesus goes on to say that the power flowing through him is the power of God.  He has done the inner work necessary to become an incredibly open path for God’s energy to flow into the world through him.  And so he says to the people, “the work I am doing is the work that God does.”

Lent is a great time to open ourselves to God.

My wife, Lynne, is a yoga teacher.  I remember during her yoga teacher training she learned about some very practiced yogis who had actually expanded their ribcages because of their practice of breathing.  Over time their practice had changed their bodies and their capacities, and you could even see the physical changes.

I imagine God inviting us into a similar process.  I think God says to us, “I want to open and expand your heart capacities.  I want to help you make more space in there…”  God then stretches us (with our consent) and our hearts grow.  As our hearts grow, God can do more work in and through us because there is more room.

Here’s a short meditation I’d offer based on today’s readings:

I am not forgotten. God wants to work through me. Therefore I will open my heart. So that others may know that they are not forgotten.