Out of the Darkness Emerges Love ©
Reverend Janet Parsons
Gloucester UU Church
December 9, 2018

“Darkness, soothe my weary eyes, that I may see more clearly. When my heart with sorrow cries, comfort and caress me. And then my soul may hear a voice, a still, small voice of love eternal…” (Singing the Living Tradition, Dark of Winter, #55)

I thought I would share some good news with you this morning. Although the days will continue to grow shorter for the next two weeks, the sun will not set any earlier than it is today. We have arrived.

This is a hard time of year for those of us who are sensitive to the lack of sunlight. I’m finding this year that the short afternoons make me anxious. Sometimes I look up and realize how dark it’s getting, and think, “Oh, no, it’s night, and I haven’t gotten anything done yet!” Then I have to breathe for just a minute and remember that I only just recently had lunch.

I’m very aware this fall of how hard I am fighting the darkness. I think it’s a common reaction. So we humans do all we can to create more light – we light menorahs and Advent Wreaths, we festoon our homes and public spaces with beautiful Christmas displays, and we wait.

And yet, darkness is needed. We need time to rest, to dream, to be able to see the moon and the stars. Darkness reminds us that this is a time of mystery: only now, when things appear to have died, do we await new life. Seeds must lie in wait in the dark earth before emerging as new growth in the spring. We can change our way of thinking about darkness and see it as a time of waiting, of hoping, of preparing for new things to emerge.

There are many mysteries to ponder at this time of year. Here are just a few: what is death? Can miracles be true? And here is one that has been engaging me lately: what, exactly, is love? Where does it come from? And because this is such a challenging question, I decided to invite some ancient and modern voices to help us think about love this morning: I will approach this sermon a bit differently and include wisdom from some of the mystics to broaden our thinking.

First, we can begin by considering whether love is purely a biological phenomenon. In this era when neuroscience is unlocking many doors to ancient questions, we do look to science to seek answers about love. But even scientists think of love as mysterious. A headline in Psychology Today read, “Love may be the most compelling mystery of the mind science will ever tackle.”
It’s compelling, and it’s a very long-standing mystery. Back in the 13th century, Meister Eckhart, the German monk and mystic, wrote this: “What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure? I think it is the hope of loving, or being loved…” (Meister Eckhart, “The Hope of Loving,” in Love Poems from God, translated by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 109)

So far, science has been able to show us that there are definite biological responses that are stimulated by sensations of love and desire. Different areas of our brains respond to different senses of affection and desire. The article went on to describe love as one of the most powerful and meaningful forces on the planet. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/neuronarrative/201402/what-neuroscience-tells-us-about-being-in-love) And I love that word, ‘force’. I always think of love as a force, a form of power. But does science answer our question of where love comes from? Science seems able at this point to monitor our responses to love, but not the origins of love itself.

In our reading this morning, James Ford shared his beliefs about love. He called it an amoral force, something that can both create and destroy lives. It’s desire and something beyond desire. For Ford, the importance of this force of love is for us to learn how best to harness it. That, he wrote, is our work as humans. (UU World, https://www.uuworld.org/articles/how-know-god)

Now, the love Ford is talking about here isn’t the same kind of love that the Psychology Today article was trying to pick apart, commenting on which areas of the brain are active when feeling infatuation or desire. This Love, love with a capital L, is what I name as the elemental life force. It is what animates the world; the source of growth, of light and darkness, of life and death. Simply put, it is the creation – everything around us, all of existence. “Love,” says Father Richard Rohr, the Franciscan friar and spiritual leader, “is the very meaning of Creation.”
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#search/richard+rohr/FMfcgxvzLrQQzPvrjrmQSrrXKlNXmpFC

We still do not have an answer to our question of where love comes from. And so we turn to the mystics.

St. Francis of Assisi was acutely aware of this love, writing,
“Such love does the sky now pour,
That whenever I stand in a field,
I have to wring out the light
When I get home.”
(St. Francis of Assisi, “Wring Out My Clothes,”, in Love Poems from God, p. 48.)

Perhaps love comes from the sky.

St. Francis told a story of a vision in which he accompanied God on a walk through the world. Francis wrote, “I have come to learn: God adores His creation.” (St. Francis of Assisi, “God Would Kneel Down,” in Love Poems from God, p. 41.)

Here is one answer to the question of where love comes from. For the mystics, Love emanates from God. And in fact, for them, Love, and God, and all the Creation are one and the same. Here’s a short poem by Tukaram, a 17th century Indian poet:
“I said to a squirrel, “What is that you’re carrying?”
and he said, “It is my lucky rock; isn’t it pretty?”
I held it and said, “Indeed.”
I said to God, “What is this earth?”
And God said, “It is my lucky rock; isn’t it wondrous?”
Yes, indeed. (Tukaram, “My Lucky Rock,” in Love Poems from God, p. 355.)

Love, God, and the Creation are one to the mystics. The 16th century Saint Teresa of Avila expressed her belief in this unity with these words:
“We bloomed in Spring.
Our bodies are the leaves of God.
The apparent seasons of life and death our eyes can suffer;
but our souls, dear, I will just say this forthright:
they are God Himself, we will never perish unless He does.”
(Teresa of Avila, I Will Just Say This, in Love Poems from God, p. 271.)

“Our bodies are the leaves of God.” We are part and parcel of the universe, of the Creation, which the mystics believe is God’s expression of Love.

Through all the ages, across continents and cultures, mystics – those people who sense the connection of all life, who feel the unity underlying our existence – share their belief that God is a presence, a force, that emanates Love. Perhaps, as it is for James Ford, and always has been for the Universalists, God is Love. Or put another way, perhaps Love is God. And either way, each of us is a part of this eternal Love, and each of us helps to grow and complete that Love.

One of the greatest and most beloved mystical poets was Hafiz, from 14th century Persia. He offered us this:
My Beloved said,
“My name is not complete without yours.”
I thought:
How could a human’s worth ever be such?
And God knowing all our thoughts –
and all our thoughts are innocent steps on the path –
then addressed my heart,
God revealed a sublime truth to the world
when He sang,
“I am made whole by your life. Each soul,
each soul completes me.”
(Hafiz, “Each Soul Completes Me,” in Love Poems from God, p. 179.)

St. John of the Cross put it very simply. “I said to God, “What are you?” And he replied, “I am what is loved.” (St. John of the Cross, “I am What is Loved,” in Love Poems from God, p. 304.)

Love, then, is that force that emerged before time, emerged out of the darkness, the void before the beginning. Love is that force that continues to expand the universe, to enlarge it, and us. Love exists beyond us, and yet at the same time is within us as well. In the words of our own mystic from Concord, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Within us is the soul of the Whole, the wise silence, the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal One.” (The Oversoul, adapted)

We have heard from a chorus of voices, male and female, from Persia to New Mexico, from the 13th century to the 21st. And while the language is different the belief is fundamentally the same: that the force that brings everything to life is the eternal upwelling of Love in the world. And the voices tell us, over and over, that we are all loved, and that our lives contribute to the love that fosters Creation. Our presence expands the love, and we are all together a part of the love and the world.

I leave you with the thoughts of St. Teresa, from the 1500’s: such ancient sentiment and yet so relevant for today:
What are all these insane borders we protect?
What are all these different names for the same church of love
We kneel in together?
For it is true, together we live; and only at that shrine
Where all are welcome will God sing loud enough to be heard.
(Teresa of Avila, “When the Holy Thaws,” in Love Poems from God, p. 290)

May we all contribute to the welcome, so that the song of Love can be heard. May we feel the presence of that Love emerging from the darkness and mystery. May we feel loved, and may we love, so that we help this eternal source of life to expand within us and beyond us, today and every day. Amen.