Where I Am

The following guest sermon was submitted by ULC minister Cheryl Salerno. All ULC Ministers are invited to contribute their own sermons for consideration/publication. To submit a sermon, please email it to sermons@ulc.org.

Many years ago I had decided to read the Bible from cover to cover in one year. I read book after book, night after night before bed, until one night I got to the passage where Jesus says, “I go to prepare a place for you ... that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:2, KJV) It felt like that would be a good time to go to sleep, and I dozed off wondering what kind of place He was preparing for me.

That night I had this dream: I am standing at the doorway into a room that looks to be in an old castle with stone floors and high stone walls. Monastic and medieval. In the far right corner is a small pallet on the floor with a rough-hewn brown blanket on it. I think to myself, Is this it?

Also on that far wall is a very tall, narrow arched window. I walk farther into the room to look out the window, when out of the corner appears a vine that grows up the wall and across the ceiling. Down from the end of the vine forms a large cluster of grapes.

None of this was like an actual plant, an actual fruit, even though the leaves and vine were green and the grapes were purple. They were translucent, a kind of crystalline material, and they shimmered with vibrant color from an inner light. Immediately I recognized this as the True Vine, and I think to myself, This is all I need. (End of dream)

Many times over the years, this dream has brought me great comfort and steadied my faith in times of need.

Seven years later, I had a dream where I'm standing at the doorway to the same room, but the wall next to me all of a sudden begins to disintegrate and a huge opening appears into another room that's bigger and brighter. I feel invited to step into it. There's a long table on my right and a long table on my left, both filled with objects, things we use in everyday life. Hand-crafted utensils and tools are arranged on the tables, clothing and art are hanging on the walls.

As I look over each one, I see how each is so exquisitely fashioned. In the fabrics and the clothing, each tone is just the perfect saturation of that color, each pattern woven so wondrously beautifully. The whole room holds such heavenly and exquisitely made things that we need in everyday life that I am left speechless. (End of dream)

Many times over the years, this dream has uplifted my spirits and fed my soul.

As I reflect on these dreams today, I realize that there are certain archetypal or universal elements to them and that they may be messages each of us can come to know. Whereas in the first dream the room was very simple, austere, the message is that, even here in the humblest place on Earth, His presence can be felt. And so it is for each of us, no matter where we live or whatever our circumstances, the True Vine abides there within the same space.

On the other side of the wall in the later dream, it seems as though each thing has been created by God's hand, so incredibly perfectly. Each one, each lamp, each utensil, each object, each cloth -- exquisite. This place feels heavenly, a place of perfection and extraordinary beauty.

I think the message here is that when we allow our walls to dissolve -- walls of divisive thought, of judgement, of bias, of carelessness -- then we can see through the glass clearly. We can allow our vision to align with His view of what this life really holds behind the veil. Behind the everyday creations of this life, beyond the outer appearance, we can behold the the hand of the original Creator, the Spirit of Life, in everything, everywhere, realizing that His kingdom is and always has been here on Earth, all around us, for us to make of it what we will ...

“...that where I am, there ye may be also.”