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.
I Think
Do you know where you will spend eternity? I don’t! But I do have a conjecture…
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I think that one of the reasons why Christianity is speaking to fewer people these days is because skeptics are the growth demographic. Claiming to know exactly what happens to us when we die just makes us look superstitious and gullible. But that’s what I think — leave a comment below, and tell me what you think.
The Eucharistic Twinkie
There’s no way to sugar-coat it: in this video, I read a poem and take a bite out of a Twinkie. (You might notice a bit of a bow to Julian of Norwich at the end of the poem: hazelnut to her, Twinkie to me.)
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I think this was the first Twinkie I’ve tasted since I had a deep-fried specimen at the Bureau County Fair in Illinois, years ago. But what do you think: can a Twinkie be full of the Spirit of God? Is there even room in there, amid the sodium stearoyl lactylate and xanthan gum?
Be Still
This week’s message is a guided contemplative practice called a stilling chant. It’s a quiet chant that gets progressively shorter, until you are left with a speaking silence between you and God. For this practice, you want to be in a safe and quiet place—or, at least, some place where you can sit comfortably and pray with your eyes closed.
Be still, and know that I am God. —Psalm 46:10
Because your eyes will be closed, there’s no video this week, but only audio. The audio lasts about six minutes; the time that follows can last as long as you like. You can pray, or meditate, or contemplate, or just drift off to sleep—whatever your body and spirit need!
(For those wanting to lead a group in this practice, sheet music is available in our Free Stuff area.)
If you use the practice, please leave a comment below. What was your experience?
Body, Mind, Vine, and Fruit
My seminary brother Rob Pierson offered a whole pamphlet in response to my Siphonophore message last week. His is a more positive metaphoric understanding of community — not as a self-serving institutional organism, but as a relational expression of the mind of Christ. Rob has given me permission to share his pamphlet with you, so I’m attaching it below. Rob is a remarkable soul, and I recommend reading this, and anything else he writes. (I also recommend spending time with his photographic artwork, if you can find it. How’s that web site coming, Rob?)
The seminary Rob and I attended is the Earlham School of Religion. It’s a community rooted in the Quaker tradition, which is Rob’s faith family too, though not mine. A “pamphlet,” in that tradition, is a monograph inspired by the Spirit; it’s a time-honored medium for written ministry. In Rob’s pamphlet, you might find one or two terms that are used in unfamiliar, Quakerly ways: clearness committee, testimonies, business meeting, and so on. But his message is universal and accessible. I hope you’ll enjoy it.
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.