Matthew Neugebauer

No Power Of Ourselves: Lent II

I’m of two minds about the way language of “Christian duty” is obsolete in #millennial post-Christendom. I am convinced that it’s obsolete: I just have two competing reasons why. Human life is complicated and Christendom was complicated, so I’m sure that both are right in different ways and in different circumstances. On Ash Wednesday IContinue reading “No Power Of Ourselves: Lent II”

All those who are to be called…: Lenten Ember Days

A few weeks ago, a Roman Catholic seminarian asked me, “has women’s ordination helped the Anglican Church?” His question was innocent enough, posed with genuine curiosity, and I appreciated his effort to hear the experience of another Christian tradition. Maybe it helps that I understand the sacramental theology underlying Roman (and Eastern) insistence on aContinue reading “All those who are to be called…: Lenten Ember Days”

New and Contrite Hearts: Ash Wednesday and Lent I

I’m of two minds about the way language of “Christian duty” is obsolete in #millennial post-Christendom. I am convinced that it’s obsolete: I just have two competing reasons why. Human life is complicated and Christendom was complicated, so I’m sure that both are right in different ways and in different circumstances. I’ll go into one of thoseContinue reading “New and Contrite Hearts: Ash Wednesday and Lent I”

Sermon: Epiphany 5A

February 9, 2020; St. Stephen’s, Maple Isaiah 58:1-12 Psalm 112:1-10 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 Matthew 5:13-20 Link to full text for this day. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I At the parish in Scarborough where I did a student placement, the priest would often say, “the first instinctContinue reading “Sermon: Epiphany 5A”

Put upon us…

An almost imperceptible difference between contemporary versions of the Advent Collect and its original comes very near the beginning. It may just be a difference in emphasis, but it’s one I’ve needed to sit with these past four Sundays. Contemporary versions read like this: “give us grace that *we may…put on* the armour of light.”Continue reading “Put upon us…”

O Sapientia

O Sapientia,quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,attingens a fine usque ad finem,fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia:veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae. O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,reaching from one end to the other,mightily and sweetly ordering all things:Come and teach us the way of prudence.