Home2024-02-19T09:58:28-06:00


Hi! I’m Adam Brooks Webber. If you’re not already on The Merry Mystic mailing list, I’d like to convince you to sign up. You’ll get occasional emails about my new work, much of which is available through this site. When you sign up, I’ll send you a password to my Free Stuff area, which includes lots of free sheet music and other resources. If the emails don’t turn out to interest you, you can unsubscribe whenever you like. (And keep the Free Stuff password, of course.)

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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

Adam Brooks Webber
Adam Brooks Webber
When I was a boy, I couldn’t wait to grow up so that I could A) move away from small-town Illinois and B) stop going to church. Consequently, I am now a pastor in a small town in Illinois.

Merry, Mystical Missives

Here you’ll find everything I’ve sent out to the mailing list for The Merry Mystic.

The Bird Is the Word

Hello, Merry Mystics!

This coming Sunday, in many churches, we’ll celebrate the baptism of Jesus. I wrote this song about that story—from the perspective of the dove. I borrowed most of the melody from Sir Arthur Sullivan (H. M. S. Pinafore). When I started the lyric, I thought it was going to be something for congregational singing, but on the whole I think it works better as a solo:

If you’d like to try it, there’s sheet music here.

Bright blessings,

Adam

P.S. Here’s that lyric:

I Am but a Little Dove

To the man of God I came,
where the Jordan’s waters flow.
When the Spirit called his name,
what it meant I did not know.
I am but a little dove; all I know of God is love.

Sore afraid, I shut my beak,
but in me, the greater Dove
flew that day. I heard Her speak
words of sure, parental love.
Though I’m just a gentle bird, let me tell you what I heard:

Wings aflame and feathers flared,
Her unending love She sang.
Love for him, Her coo declared,
till the earth and heavens rang.
Neither far nor fast I fly, yet Her flight made light the sky.

When you baptize, do you know
that Her sky remains alight?
Do you feel Her love still flow
down to earth from heaven’s height?
Do you see, inside your church, what I see from where I perch?

Turn your face up to Her sky;
let Her wingtip brush your brow.
On Her love you can rely—
just don't ask me why or how.
I am but a little dove; all I know of God is love.
By |January 10, 2025|Categories: uncategorized|0 Comments
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Christmas Song: Rejoice! Rejoice!

Hello, Merry Mystics! Here’s my new hymn for Gaudete Sunday: “Rejoice! Rejoice!” (Unlike “Joy to the World!” which was intended to be about the Second Coming, this one is actually about Christmas.) I hope it will give you a smile. Sheet music is here:

Rejoice! Rejoice! (letter size, with piano accompaniment)

Rejoice! Rejoice! (legal size, for folding, voice only)

There’s also a video of it here.

By |December 15, 2024|Categories: music, The Merry Mystic|0 Comments
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Christmas Song: All Shall Be Well, Noël

Hello, friends!

Here’s the fifth and final in my series of 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.

I wrote a slightly more flowery harmony and accompaniment for this one, because I planned for it to be sung by a quartet on Christmas Eve.

All Shall Be Well, Noël (full score) (letter size)

All Shall Be Well, Noël (voice) (legal size, for folding)

By |November 26, 2024|Categories: music, The Merry Mystic|0 Comments
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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: Rejoice! Rejoice!

Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, is all about rejoicing. We practiced some things that can bring a little more happiness into our lives: cheerful greetings, peaceful contemplation, and a new Christmas hymn.

By |December 15, 2024|Categories: music, sermons|0 Comments
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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.

By |December 1, 2024|Categories: karatedo, sermons|0 Comments
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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.

By |November 24, 2024|Categories: sermons|0 Comments
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