By Rev. Jeanne Loveless

“So, when the blessing comes, take its hand. Get up, step through the portal... Set out on the road you cannot see... in Advent seasons past, we have journeyed through darkness. desire, preparing a space, hope, birthing, and welcoming. We will know these places again and again in our lives because God’s path unfolds not in a straight line, but in a spiral. We emerge onto each new threshold with the experiences of the passage we have just made…. But we will understand the journey past only as we continue to embrace the path before us. We come to understand that we are portals for and bearers of the Christ light, and that the holy is born in us, only as we enter the mysteries of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany again and again.” – Jan Richardson

This Advent season we will be exploring portals. A portal is an entrance - but it’s a unique one. It’s usually imposing or out of the ordinary. And as wiki suggests “A portal is a threshold that usually connects to a longer bridge or a tunnel.” Portals also invoke entry points for medication, or doorways into internet spaces. And I can’t help think of one of my favorite sci-fi shows (Star Trek Voyager) where the USS Voyager gets sucked into some kind of portal/wormhole and ends up a long way from the starting point and is trying to get home. Jan Richardson even suggests that during the season of Advent not only are we called to be on the lookout for Holy portals, but we are called “to become portals for bringing the Christ light into the world.”

In coming Sundays we will explore the portal experiences of the remarkable folks called to bring the Christ light into the world in the Biblical narrative. On the First Sunday of Advent, we will cross the mysterious temple portal with Zachariah. On the Second, we will enter portals of prophetic witness and preparation with John the Baptist. On the third we will journey through portals of home and the divine feminine with Mary and Elizabeth. And on the fourth we will explore portals of dreamtime with Joseph. Here are some questions to get our reflections started as we enter the portal of the 2021 Season of Advent together:

What portals are you/we navigating personally? What do you think of when you hear the word portal? Where do you feel it in your body? What portals do you see others navigating? What portals are we navigating in our community and nation? What portals are opening and closing at UCH? Join us this Sunday as we begin our Advent journey of exploring portals of light, Shadow, and Mystery, and preparing to give birth to the Light of Christ in the world together!

- Rev. Jeanne

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