Delivered at UUP by Dr. Shepherd Bliss (sb3 at pon dot net) on March 11, 2007
Music throughout by Kokopelli Players: Larry Stefl, Peter Herbert, and Laura Boytz.

Note: (short lines are not intended to be poetry, but make it easier to read by presenter)

Call to Worship: Nature’s Many Daily Calls

Every day we each receive many calls.
Some calls come to us at the same time
And compete for our attention.
We have the free will to respond as we chose.
Thank you for responding to the call to worship here today.

On the farm of my youth
We were called to milk the cows early each morning.
Later the sun would call us to its light
A bell would call us to eat
We were called throughout the day
Then a sweet darkness called us to the night
This was before electricity arrived to rural Iowa
So we had bedtime stories,
Rather than television
"Once upon a time, a long, long time ago"
My Uncle would call us into sleep.
After a usually restful night,
This divinely-inspired cycle would start over again.

You responded to a call to worship here today
Music called us to enter.
The radiant sun calls us to grow
In a few hours the darkness will call us to slow down and rest.
May we not take for granted these many calls that nature makes to us
May you each respond freely to the calls that you choose to.

In Praise of Sweet Darkness

But there is also a benevolent darkness.
Chocolate would be an example of sweet darkness.
Where would romance be without the sweet darkness
of chocolate, dark red roses, and dim candlelight?

Most of us were conceived in the dark,
Then nurtured for 9 months
In the sweetest darkness, comfort, and nourishment
of the womb.
Benevolent darkness take many forms.

It could also be called pregnant darkness,
and even Divine Darkness.

******************

I have an appointment with sweet darkness this afternoon
at a West Petaluma ranch,
on my way home to my organic farm between Cotati & Seb.

It all started with one of those ads
in the Press Democrat’s "Bargain Hunt" section.
You know, where you can get free and cheap things.
"Free Horse Manure" the Sun. Feb. 25 ad promised.

So I called early Sun. morning on my way
to give a guest presentation to the UU Marin Congregation.
"Come on over" the ranch lady said.

She loaded me up with the sweet darkness
that makes my berries grow so well.
You could call it fruitful darkness.

So I ended up at UU Marin with a load of sweet darkness.
Fortunately, there were lots of gardeners there,
so they smiled with understanding.

Have you noticed that whatever color you put in your mouth
or your compost pile--green, red, yellow, purple--
always comes out dark?

Horse manure is not my favorite dung.
Cow manure is better.
They have more stomachs,
So fewer seeds to grow weeds.

"Would you like some chicken manure?"
the ranch lady said.
"Sure thing."
It’s sweeter, more nitrogen,
better for plants.
She promised me rabbit manure this afternoon--even sweeter.

The creator has gifted us with a natural cycle of animal wastes feeding soil and plants.
We humans have broken that cycle with our chemical
and others creations that do not re-cycle.

Among the divinely-inspired daily cycles
is that of light and darkness--
both of which merit our praise.
Light and dark are a long-term married couple.
They have a permanent partnership.

Benevolent darkness surrounds us,
in many forms,
drops on us each night.

When was the last time your praised it?
We often praise the sun and light.
It is time to echo our ancestors,
Who knew the value of the dark
For resting, sleeping, and dreaming.

There are many kinds of sweet darkness,
Such as chocolate bars.
I prefer the Endangered Species Brand,
especially their Black Panther 88% chocolate bar. Yum. Yum.

It brings back memories of Panama,
where I was raised, which still has black panthers.
The darkness has a connection to wildness,
which is one reason many people fear it.

**************

I want to appreciate my long-time friends
Peter Herbert of the UU congregation in Marin
and Larry Stefl of Oakland for joining us with their music today.

We began blending spoken word and music
in churches and elsewhere nearly 20 years ago.
Laura Boytz graciously agreed to join us
for the 1st time when we presented
to the UU congregation in Marin & then again this morning.

We used to call ourselves the Kokopelli Sons,
named after the humpbacked flute player
of the Anazasi people, a wounded healer.
Now we’re the Kokopelli Players.

Music, the arts and ministry, of course, go back a long ways
Sometimes even with poetry.
The Psalms and the Song of Solomon would be examples.

I was surprised to see a front-page article last month
In the Christian Science Monitor
headlined "From churches that are growing,
A sound of drums."

And there they were in a photo--the drums,
A caption beneath which read

"Jammin’ gospel: Music plays a big part
in the service at the First Baptist Church of Wheaton, Md."

The article reports on a recent survey of 900 congregations,
Including both liberal and evangelical churches.
Those that drum tend to do better than those that don’t.

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord" the Bible says.
I am glad to see that some aspects
Of this old-time religion are returning.

I bring you greetings from Larry Robinson,
my close friend in Sebastopol, where I live.
Larry is the son of Adina & Gordon Robinson,
who helped found the Marin UU congregation.
Adina also supported this fellowship

************

The current black or white, right or wrong,
either/or thinking that dominates
here in the US and in much of the world is dangerous.

I want to advocate both/and thinking.
One way to do that is to value both
the so-called white and the so-called black.

Americans tend to think
that we are the good guys on the white horses
and they are the bad guys on the black horses.

Good guy vs. bad guy is a common polarization
that I remember from being in the U.S. Army.
We were taught that we were the good guys
fighting the bad guys.
It didn’t much matter who those bad guys were--
Communists, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians then.
And behind them were the really bad guys--
the Russians and the Chinese.
Recently it has been the Islamists, Iraqis,
Afghans, French, Iranians, whomever.
They are just, well, the bad guys.

I was brought up in the military family
that gave its name to Ft. Bliss, Texas.
Such dualism prevailed in the Bliss military family.
I was lucky enough to have gone to a religious gathering
where Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke.
He reminded me of the Biblical mandate to love.
He practiced what Gandhi taught.
If you image others as enemies, this sets up a dualism.
So I have worked to reframe this polarization,
while accepting that I do have opponents and adversaries,
But that is different.

I play chess,
not against enemies,
but against worthy opponents.

To transcend this dualism, I feel,
We must embrace the allegedly negative pole,
which in this case is denigrated as "black,"
which also happens to be the color of a large group of people,
from whom we all apparently descended.

I am writing a book titled "In Praise of Sweet Darkness,
Luscious Berries, and Endarkenment."
It is already over 39,000 words on more than 70 pages.

I first read the term "sweet darkness"
in a Methodist seminary some 40 years ago.

St. John of the Cross wrote about it in the 16th century
in his classic "Dark Night of the Soul."

Here is what St. John said:

"Oh night that was my guide!
Oh darkness dearer than the morning’s pride.
Oh night that joined the lover
To the beloved bride
Transfiguring them each into the other."

More ancient writers also described sweet darkness.
Here is what Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu of the Tao Te Ching
said in the 6th century B.C.:

"...mystery and manifestations
Arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding."

Here are some words from the Old Testament:
"The Book of Job:"

"Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
And where is the place of darkness...?"

Here is what the Greek poet Noonus said in the 6th century A.D.:
"Make long the sweet darkness..."

In the 13th century the great Sufi poet Rumi added:

"Night cancels the business of day. Be refreshed in the darkness... doesn’t the dark contain the water of life? ...in the black core of the heart God created the eternal light of love."

"The air is full of birds, and sweet with the breath of the pine. Night brings no gloom to the heart with its welcome shade. The mystery of nature was never displayed more happily."

So I rise "In Praise of Sweet Darkness and Luscious Berries."

I added the berries part because
I am a berry farmer in Sebastopol
And love those dark fruits.

Darkness and the soul are partners in the valleys.
The light and spirit are partners in the peaks.

Contemporary Welsh-American David Whyte
has a poem called "Sweet Darkness."
He says, "Time to go into the dark."

Think chocolate. Chocolate is fruitful, sweet darkness.

Indigenous people and the ancients honored the Dark.
Too few modern people do,
in our vain attempts to light up the night,
with Christmas lights, street lights, TV tubes, & bright malls.

Even some of you may be afraid of the dark.
Mexican culture has less fear of the darkness.
So they have a Day of the Dead,
Where each year the entire family
Goes to the cemetery at night to honor their ancestors.

When was the last time you praised the dark?
El dia, brother day, gets more appreciation
than does la noche, sister night.
It’s time to honor la obscuridad dulce,
And the Dark Feminine.

Most human, sexual love-making occurs at night.
Most of us were conceived in the dark,
which provides cover and protection for intimate activities.
Endarkenment can lead to enheartenment.

Womb rap

African teacher Malidoma Some
has an essay called "Inviting the Darkness In,"
He writes,

"It is the sweet power of darkness
that invites the discerning listener
to attend to the whisperings of the spirit world.
In darkness true connection occurs.
Turn out the lights; step into the beauty of darkness."

"Darkness, darkness,
Long and lonesome,
Ease the day that brings me pain....
Darkness, darkness
be my blanket,
Cover me with the endless night...
Darkness, darkness,
be my pillow,
take my hand, and let me sleep."

"Hello, darkness, my old friend.
I’ve come to talk with you again."

My favorite poets praise darkness--
Including Rilke, and Mary Oliver.
Since I’m writing a book about "Sweet Darkness,"
I welcome any references you may have.

The most famous early 20th poem originally in English
with words about darkness may be in T.S. Eliot’s "Four Quartets,"
which includes the following:

"O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark...
I said to my soul, be still... and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God...
I said to my soul, be still... and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing;
wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing...
So the darkness shall be the light,
and the stillness the dancing."

Following is a sound
From a Peruvian instrument called the huaca,
Which native peoples apparently used
To summon their gods.

Following are lines from 2 Rilke poems:

"You darkness, that I come from,
And love so much.

... it is possible a great energy
is moving near me.
I have faith in nights."

"I love the dark hours of my being
in which my senses drop into the deep."

But don’t get stuck in the negative light,
As the ancient Greek Icarus, the son of Daedelus did.
He got too close to the sun,
Which burned the bees’ wax attaching his wings,
And he fell to the Earth.

Combat rap
[...]
--beware the bright light!

You hear people curse the dark, but not the light.
I rise to curse the light of combat.

Our fast-moving culture responds to
"Lights, cameras, action."

How about "Darkness, stand down, slow down."

"Ohh, I love darkness," writes Bobbie Alicen
who coordinates the UU Fellowship on the Hawai’i Island,
where I lived for 3 years, until a few months ago.
She says, "It's the time of healing, of rest,
of incubation, of discovery.
It's time within one's inner consciousness.
The time we make our dreams."

St. Francis of Assisi is one of my favorite Christians.
He apparently wrote the following:

"Darkness is an unlit wick;
it just needs your touch, Beloved,
to become a sacred flame."

"Turn to me with your whole heart and do not despise me
because I am black and dark, for the sun has burned me so,
and the black depths have covered my face."

14th century mystic Meister Eckhart apparently said:
"The Light that is God flows out and darkens every light."
This is a mysterious passage.
Eckhart associates his all-powerful God as having such a strong Light that it can darken all other lights.

The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung
spoke about the Shadow as that which we have repressed.
In order to become whole and balanced,
We must integrate the shadow into ourselves.
Rather than project it outside--
Oh, they’re the bad guys on the dark horses,
And we Americans are the good guys on the white horses

You may remember that in the Peter Pan story,
He lost his shadow.
Without our shadow, we are incomplete.
So Wendy had to find it and sew it back on.
We need to integrate the darkness--
Moving from either/or thinking
To both/and thinking.

Scientists talk about "dark matter," "dark energy"
And "black holes," which are the essence of the universe,
Which seems to be about 95% dark.

I grow boysenberries on my Kokopelli Farm.
My compost piles are what give my plants life.
I throw in things that are green, yellow, red & other colors.
When they are ripe, they are black.

Here is what Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry writes

"To go in the dark with a light
is to know the light.

To know the dark, go dark.
Go without sight...
and know that the dark, too,
blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings."

Oh, lovely, dark berries,
symbol of the endarkenment that I rise to honor.
Your darkness brings me joy, health, sweetness, and longevity.