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: 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:
Star-Struck by the Stable Gate (legal size, for folding)
Star-Struck by the Stable Gate (letter size)
There’s also a video of it 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.
There’s also a video of it here.
To a Horse’s Rear
Hello, friends!
Here’s a little song in response to the recent election here in the United States. (We all have our own ways of coping!) The lyric is in sonnet form—plus a few parenthetical phrases. It’s just a trumpery little sonnet, really, and I offer it with apologies to William “Shifty” Shakespeare.
An Evening Wasted with Adam Brooks Webber, Online
Here’s a quick (35 s) video I put together to advertise my concert, “An Evening Wasted with Adam Brooks Webber”:
I hope some of you can make it in person. If not, don’t despair: you can use this link to the livestream on YouTube on Friday night, 7:00 p.m. Central. The video there should continue to be available after the concert is over.
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: Beacon of Bethlehem
For the fourth Sunday in Advent, a new hymn about the Star of Bethlehem, and how God continues to show us the way.
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.
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.