Free Stuff
My sheet music and other free resources are available here. Just follow this link.
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.
Come To Me
Spring is on my mind and in my heart this week. Trees are leafing out overnight, and foals and fawns are frolicking in the meadows. The sexy ebullience of creation is made manifest. It’s like a recapitulation of the seven-day creation story from Genesis. I picture God as calling all living things, both into existence and toward God’s self simultaneously. This call is a deep enchantment, a longing that is part of our incarnational being, a magnetism that draws us Godward.
That’s the idea of “Come To Me,” a song from my 2012 album As a Deer Longs. Without a band and a DJ, I can’t do this one live, so here it is as an MP3.
In case the lyric went by too fast, here it is in full:
Come To Me I am ready now. I have trained myself for this. I summon you: Come to me! Bird of the air, I summon thee: Flap your wings and come to me! Beast of the earth, I summon thee: Stomp your feet and come to me! Fish of the sea, I summon thee: Shake your fins and come to me! I shine my light and draw you like a moth to a flame, I sing the song and send the sound of saying your name. I pull you to the edge and then I pull a little more, I light the fuse and spread the news and open up your hidden door. Now come to me! I open up a path that you won’t find on the map, I light the dark and make a spark that bridges your gap. I dance before the altar and you feel the earth shake, I touch you and your sun comes up and tells you that you’re wide awake. Now come to me! Fly me, whale me, stork me, quail me, hare me, snail me, come to me! Bear me, bee me, mare me, flea me, manatee me, come to me! Louse me, mouse me, goat me, stoat me, tick me, chick me, come to me! Bat me, gnat me, frog me, rat me, dog me, cat me, come to me! Come to me! Come!
My Store page tells you how to buy that album, if you’d like to hear more.
Beyond Resistance
Here’s a book my fellow Merry Mystics might enjoy: Beyond Resistance by Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer.
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John also does a weekly podcast that might appeal to Merry Mystics. It’s called “Into the Mystic,” and you can find it here.
Mothers Day Psalm
Hello, friends. Here’s a Mothers Day special, in honor of my own wonderful mother.
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Here’s the text of that version of Psalm 23.
The Lady Is My Mother
The Lady is my mother;
I shall not want.
She tucks me in between clean sheets;
She reads me a story.
She cleans the cut and binds on the Band-Aid;
She combs down my hair for our name's sake.
Even though I tremble and cry out in darkness, I will waken with relief,
For you are with me; your hand and your voice, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me with macaroni and cheese
in the presence of my siblings;
You set fresh milk on the table, and only gently scold me when
My cup runneth over.
Surely love and generosity shall sustain me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lady for ever.
The Gospel of John Meets Gilbert and Sullivan
The Gospel of John is the gospel of mixed metaphors. Here’s a little song to help you enjoy them…
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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.