Free Stuff Updates for Star-Struck by the Stable Gate

Hello, Merry Mystics!

Preparing for next week’s release of my new book, Star-Struck by the Stable Gate, I’ve been updating our Free Stuff page. Sheet music for all the hymns in the new book is available there now, and it’s easy to find at the top of the page. Also, there are video performances of all the music in the book. A few are solo performances, but most are videos that can be used to lead congregational singing, in case you don’t have an accompanist available. (I also added some videos for older hymns from The Inn of God’s Forgiveness.)

The new book will be available on the 19th. For now, check out the new free stuff here.

2026-10-10T16:28:51-05:00October 10, 2026|0 Comments

New Book Coming: Star-Struck by the Stable Gate

Hello, Merry Mystics!

I have a new book on the way: Star-Struck by the Stable Gate: Fifteen New Hymns and Thoughts for the Christmas Season. It will be available on October 19th; the Kindle version is available for pre-order on Amazon now. By releasing it now, am I going after those big holiday bucks? Well, that’d be nice; but the truth is, the only books I’ve ever written that paid for the time I put into them were my computer science textbooks. I just wanted to get this new book out in time to be a bright Christmas blessing for someone.

The book is a collection of essays with original hymns and carols for Christmas. The format is similar to that of my 2014 book, The Inn of God’s Forgiveness, only with more music and less text. About half the hymns in the new collection make explicit references to the Bible stories of Advent, Christmas, or Epiphany; the other half, too, are connected to the Christmas season and to the birth of Jesus, in ways that I explain in the text.

The hymn texts, while distinctively Christian, are largely non-dogmatic, and I hope they’ll be useful across denominations. In these hymns, you will find no excerpts from the Nicene Creed (as in “O Come, All Ye Faithful”), no assertions about Jesus’ mother’s virginity (as in “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”), and no conjectures about his atoning sacrifice (as in “Joy to the World”). I still love the old hymns too, and I sing them often; but I try to avoid weighing my own hymns down with that kind of dogmatic freight.

The hymns themselves are not new to you, my Merry Mystic subscribers; they’ve all been available on our website for a year or more. But I hope that the essays will be interesting. And I’ll be adding some things to our Free Stuff area, including video recordings of all the hymns in the book, to support congregational singing when an accompanist is not available. So stay tuned!

2026-09-23T11:53:31-05:00September 23, 2026|3 Comments

Testosterone

Greetings, Merry Mystics!

Here’s a recruiting song for Pete Hegseth’s new “high-T’ Department of War. This is a parody of “The Longest Day” by Paul Anka, which was the theme song of the 1962 movie of the same name.

In the video, I’ve used clips from some other movies—some well-known, and some obscure. Does anyone know the movie from which the final clip was taken? Hint: it’s from 1957.

2026-08-11T16:02:30-05:00August 11, 2026|3 Comments

The Ruler of the USA

Greetings, Merry Mystics!

Here’s an American success story—with apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan.

Bright blessings,

Adam

2026-06-08T13:54:57-05:00June 8, 2026|2 Comments

Cracked Song

Greetings, Merry Mystics!

My seminary was the Earlham School of Religion. I’m so glad I found it—or it found me. I had a great experience there, and I would recommend ESR to anyone who’s thinking of seminary studies.

But what draws students to seminary studies in the first place? My classmates and I spent quite a lot of time trying to explain, to ourselves and to each other, why we were there. I’m not sure any of us came up with an entirely satisfactory answer at the time, but here’s one that’s true for me now.

Bright blessings,

Adam

P.S. I wrote this back in 2017; this is a slightly updated version.

 

2026-05-26T18:00:50-05:00May 26, 2026|0 Comments

TDS Talking

Greetings, Merry Mystics!

Another little political song today. There’s a lot of spoken word in this one. (I’ve been thinking about Gil Scott-Heron’s classic from 1971, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”)

When I first heard people accusing their political opponents of TDS, it seemed to be just a humorous put-down. More recently, though, it seems to be a serious attempt to classify political dissent as mental illness. Last month, in a Justice Department court filing, they accused the National Trust for Historic Preservation of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS.” And when I posted this video on Facebook, more than one comment insisted that TDS is a real mental illness, and I shouldn’t be making fun of it!

2026-05-08T12:05:56-05:00May 8, 2026|0 Comments

The ICE Recruiting Song

Greetings, Merry Mystics!

Gee, but I always feel reluctant to share edgy songs like this one. What if people take offense? Or what if people embrace it, with realizing that it’s satire? Or what if people are just turned off by politics of any stripe?

But, oh well. As Popeye said: I yam what I yam.

Given that, here’s The ICE Recruiting Song. The song is partly based on a popular song from the Civil War era: “Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (The Prisoner’s Hope)” by George F. Root.

2026-02-17T20:09:45-06:00February 17, 2026|1 Comment

Kick Me to the Curb

Mellow greetings, Merry Mystics!

I was thinking about Pete Seeger this week—one of my heroes—so I wrote this little protest song.

Anyone want to send me another verse?

2026-01-23T15:46:58-06:00January 23, 2026|2 Comments

Not So Wise Are We (Hymn)

I wrote a new hymn to go with the Epiphany story in the Gospel of Matthew. It’s about those mysterious visitors from the East, who behave so foolishly in the story. They go to the wrong place (Jerusalem, not Bethlehem); they visit the wrong king (Herod, not Jesus); they ask him a really foolish question (“So, what do you know about the new king—the one who’s going to replace you?”); and when they finally get to the right place, they bring three really inappropriate gifts! How’d they ever get to be called “Wise Men” anyway?

Sheet music for “Not So Wise Are We” is freely available, as always, and you can listen to the hymn here. (I also gave a whole sermon on the subject—in case anyone wants to hear a sermon!)

2026-01-04T16:40:05-06:00January 4, 2026|0 Comments

The Dark Night (I Miss You, My Friend)

Hello, Merry Mystics! Here’s a song that’s more mystical than merry.

This Sunday, I’m teaching my congregation about St. John of the Cross. We’ll read his poem “The Dark Night,” and I’ll summarize some of his extensive commentary about the “dark night of the soul.” I think most of us have had times when God feels distant—I know I have. (So did Jesus, according to the crucifixion stories in Mark and Matthew. And so did the author(s) of a number of the Psalms, like 10, 22, and 34.)

Anyway, I wrote this song to go with that teaching.

Well, actually, it sounds sort of rational when I put it that way, but the truth is that the idea for the song came to me first, out of the blue, while I was looking out the window on a flight at the start of a week’s vacation. When I got home again, I planned the sermon to go with the song.

The song is called “The Dark Night (I Miss You, My Friend)”. I’ll put sheet music for it in our Free Stuff area.

2025-07-18T22:04:31-05:00July 18, 2025|5 Comments
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