Saving, Losing and Finding our God

Rev. Peter E. Bauer

The Depreung Loseling Monastery is in Brookhaven, Georgia, a lush leafy green suburb of Atlanta. This monastery is dedicated to the teachings and traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. They are also affiliated with Center of Contemplative Studies and Compassion Ethics at Emory University.

Some monks will practice creating Tibetan Chalk Art. Pieces of chalk will be used to draw ornate artistic creations on the sidewalk. There is a great You Tube of a conch symbol being drawn on the sidewalk at Emory University. These artistic works take time to be drawn with meticulous attention.

The drawing then remains on the sidewalk until it worn away by human traffic or by the elements. The notion here is that life is not permanent and that all things are transitory in nature. Life is governed by the reality of impermanence.

This thought is striking for those of us in the western tradition, especially the Judeo-Christian tradition. We are more accustomed to thinking about life and the divine as being more permanent, that God is with us in our past, present and future. We focus upon life and faith being connected for the long haul. We become more future oriented, looking with anticipation as to what God will be doing in the future, for our lives and for our world.

However, if I understand this correctly, Tibetan Buddhism has a different emphasis. Since everything is transitory and impermanent, the important thing is to focus upon the now, the present time and our relationships with one another.

The theme of being aware, being awake can also be experienced in the practice of our Christian faith.

Isaiah writes to a people who have experienced uprooting and who have been moved against their will in a flight of human migration. Isaiah seeks to speak with authority and yet he also speaks of comfort,

 “The sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary.” (Isaiah 50: 4).

When Tibetan monks create sand mandala art, the process can take several days. They winnow sand through a funnel and add tiny colored stones to the mosaic piece. The finished objects are magnificent and striking and reveal the beauty of nature and the divine.

But then the unthinkable occurs. Just as the artists labor intently creating these beautiful objects, they immediately use the same energy and intention to destroy them.

It’s a shocking action. Why would you want to destroy something that is so unique that evokes the sacred?

Again, the Buddhist tenet is echoed in the destruction. All life is tenuous. There is no permanence, instead we live in a universe that reveals impermanence.

Jesus’ encounter with the disciples at Caesarea Philippi was no doubt a confusing time.

Jesus begins the conversation by asking the disciples: “Who do people say that I am?”

They replied “Some say John the Baptist, other say Elijah, and still others one of the prophets. (Mark 8: 27-28)

Here, Jesus asks the show-stopping question, “Who do you say that I am?”

Peter immediately replies, “You are the Christ.”

Peter doesn’t get an attaboy, no acknowledgement that his answer is correct.

Instead, Jesus tells them not to tell anyone.

Worse, Jesus doesn’t give them good news. Instead, he tells them that he must suffer rejection by the chief priests and teachers of the law. He must be killed and after three days rise again.

What a startling disconcerting message! Peter does not want to hear about any of this doom and gloom. Jesus lambasts Peter.

 “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. “(Mark 8: 33)

We are so much like Peter. We do not want things to end. We want happy endings all the time.

We don’t want to hear that we will age. We don’t want to acknowledge that our favorite landmark restaurant will close. We don’t want to accept that we can’t find that old apartment that we lived in right after we got married.

As I have said before, we want to live with certainty. We want to live with predictability.

We want to know that the things that we can count on will always be there for us.

I always think that I will see Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach, Or forever. The thought that it could erode in the next three hundred years, according to an article in The Guardian, is just too much to consider.

Jesus says “Whoever will lose their life for my sake and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for s person to gain the whole world and forfeit their soul?”

Again, I hear Jesus say that we will experience loss in life and yet there is more to come, there is the reality that we can live and thrive beyond loss.

Jesus knows that the religious leaders are watching him and are parsing every word. He no doubt is also aware that his life is in danger.

Yet the conviction of Jesus’s belief in the message of the Kingdom of God overrides any fear of the powers and the principalities of this world.

Driving back from Cannon Beach to Portland, Oregon, my sister and I proceeded East on Highway 26, the Sunset Highway. We traversed through the Tillamook Burn which is a substantial piece of timber land that ignited and burned over fifty years ago.

For a long time, many people including me thought that this will never come back.

Now you see acres and acres of new green young seedling Douglas Fir trees and signs which read these acres were planted in 2015 or 2020.

This made me feel so good. Even when it looks like death, decay and destruction will have the last say; surprise! new life and new evidence of God’s eternal presence and grace manifests itself around us.

The cycle of life is enduring. Birth, Death, Rebirth could sound familiar to a Tibetan Monk.

Saving, Losing and Finding can ring true to our Christian experience of faith.

God is present with us in our past, in our present and in our future, in our like to come.

May the regeneration of our lives through the Holy One has continue now and always.

May it be so.

Rev. Peter E. Bauer is a United Church of Christ minister. He has been a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and Medium.Com.