Free Stuff
My sheet music and other free resources are available here. Just follow this link, and enter your Merry Mystic password when requested.
These things are under a Creative Commons license that allows you to download them and copy them freely—for any non-commercial use.
Enjoy!
Store
I have books, CDs, and a video series for sale from my store page. (I wish I could just give everything away, but one must eat!)
I’m especially excited about my new book, now available: My Burden Is Light: A Pastor’s Plea for Rationality, Honesty, and Humility.
About
Merry, Mystical Missives
Here you’ll find everything I’ve sent out to the mailing list for The Merry Mystic.
Christmas Song: All Shall Be Well, Noël
Hello, friends!
Here’s the fourth in my series of five new songs/carols/hymns for Advent and Christmas. This one draws on a phrase from the writings of Julian of Norwich, an English woman who lived from 1342 to 1416. Julian was an anchoress—that is to say, she was a sort of hermit who lived in a cell built into the wall of a church. She had many visions, and she wrote them in her book Showings, which might be the first book written by a woman in the English language. In chapter 27 of the long text of Showings, she wrote:
But Jesus, who in this vision informed me about everything needful to me, answered with these words and said: Sin is necessary, but all will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well. … These words were revealed most tenderly, showing no kind of blame to me or to anyone who will be saved.
Julian accepted that “all will be well,” and trusted in God to know better than she how this is to be accomplished. I think there’s something very beautiful, and rather Christmas-like, in that moment of enlightenment and acceptance.
All Shall Be Well, Noël (full score) (letter size)
All Shall Be Well, Noël (vocal parts) (legal size, for folding)
Christmas Song: Beacon of Bethlehem
Hello, friends!
Here’s the third in my series of five new songs/carols/hymns for Advent and Christmas. This one is about the way God leads us, starting (but not ending) with the Star of Bethlehem. The sheet music with hymn parts is here:
Christmas Song: Star-Struck by the Stable Gate
Hello, friends!
Here’s the second in my series of five new songs/carols/hymns for Advent and Christmas. This one is a different take on the old story of the Animals’ Christmas. What if the animals at the stable were just waiting for human beings to finally get a clue? The sheet music with hymn parts is here:
Christmas Song: Be Born in Us Tonight
Hello, friends!
I’m working on five new songs (hymns? carols?) for Advent and Christmas. Here’s the first: Be Born in Us Tonight. There’s a verse for each Sunday in Advent, and one for Christmas Eve. The “full” sheet music has a keyboard accompaniment; the “voice” sheet music has just hymn parts, and it’s laid out for a US legal-size sheet, to print and fold.
These are the (mostly video) messages sent out to The Merry Mystic mailing list.
Sermons and Such
Every week, I preach in the Open Prairie United Church of Christ in Princeton, Illinois. I’m not sending most of these out to The Merry Mystic mailing list; but on the outside chance you’d like to see a sermon, here they are.
Sermon and Song: The Animals’ Christmas
Here’s a different take on the legend of the talking animals at the birth of Jesus: what if the animals were all just waiting for us humans to finally get a clue?
Sermon and Song: Be Born in Us Tonight
For the First Sunday in Advent, I introduced a new hymn, “Be Born in Us Tonight.” It treats the presence of Christ, not as something that happened in the past, nor as something that might happen in the future, but as something that can happen in us right now.
Crown Him (or Not)
We have a lot of rousing hymns about crowning Jesus king. They’re fun to sing, but Jesus always preferred more humble metaphors.
Exploitation and Generosity
Generosity is always part of a well-lived life. Exploitation is not.
The Father of Lies (Election Sermon, 2024)
Tuesday is an Election Day that has been looming over us for years. After Tuesday—well, it won’t be over.
Message from God: Call Me!
Some lessons in calling out, from the story of Bartimaeus.
Cherishing the Harmony (Week Four—Interdependence)
A tiny space rock can rock the heavens. The poorest child in the poorest country can rock our world. That’s how God’s creation always works: with interdependence.
Cherishing the Harmony (Week Three—Population)
To cherish the harmony of God’s creation, we must avoid causing extinctions. One thing that would help: not grabbing quite so much of the earth for ourselves.
Cherishing the Harmony (Week Two—Diversity)
God loves the exuberant diversity of creation.
Cherishing the Harmony (Week One)
The start of a sermon series on cherishing the harmony of the natural world. This week: why it’s so important, and why Christianity has so often neglected it.