The Houghton Missioner

Trinity Episcopal Church Sunday, November 10 th AD 2019   In today’s second Reading, we hear the following from our elder brother, Paul:   “As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter…        to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here.”   What he is essentially saying to the Church in Thessalonica is that they really need to calm down. The Second Coming of Christ   (when he shall again appear with all the Glory of God about him) has not yet occurred. The world we experience is not the fullness of God's Kingdom.   Those who have died are not doomed and gone forever (for the Final Resurrection has yet to take place), and those who are alive and have been baptized into the life of Christ have no right to sit back and rest on their laurels in bliss just yet...

Trinity Episcopal Church – All Saints 2019 (Year C) Sunday, November 3 rd AD 2019 Today we celebrate the Ancient Feast of All Saints: A day when the Church commemorates all of the Saints who have gone before us as well as our continued fellowship with them. Not as one might associate with a ghost, or the restless dead (for Halloween has passed), but a fellowship that exists between living souls, all co-existing in perfect unity before our God. Now how can one say that we exist in a living fellowship with those who appear to be dead? The ghosties and Ghoulies of Halloween have already been banished, snow has begun to cover the ground, and we’re all ready for Christmas . (Brace yourselves, the season of retail holiday-themed music has begun.) But even so, this (rather premature) desire for the coziness, warmth, friendship, and love of the holiday season speaks to who we are as human beings. We were built for community and intercommunion with each other...