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.
The Buddha Kicked My Butt
My little church, the Open Prairie United Church of Christ, is probably the only church for a hundred miles where I could sing this song on a Sunday morning. (It followed my sermon.) Be the Light, Merry Mystics!
Love Small
I love my small town: Princeton, Illinois. At least, I love it now. Hated it when I first moved here…
Me and Joe and What’s-His-Name
Here’s a song I wrote, inspired by a story from the Gospel of Luke. I performed this at the close of our Sunday morning soulcare at the Open Prairie United Church of Christ on Palm Sunday, 2024.
You Loved Your Life, and You Let It Go
I wrote a new hymn for the second Sunday in Lent. (It goes with my sermon, “To Let It Go“.)
There’s this paradoxical teaching from the Jesus tradition. It appears six times in the gospels (Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24, Matthew 16:25, Luke 17:33, Matthew 10:39, and John 12:25) possibly from three independent sources (Mark, John, and Q). Luke 17:33 puts it this way: “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.” I think that’s one of the many things Jesus not only taught, but also demonstrated in his life.
These are the words of the hymn:
You Loved Your Life, and You Let It Go
You lived and laughed; you loved to be
At table with high and low.
Sharing our lives, and helping us see,
Teaching us truth, setting us free.
You loved your life, and you let it go.Answering pain, answering thirst,
You let your fair fountain flow.
We were enslaved, oppressed and coerced;
You gave us hope: last shall be first!
You loved your life, and you let it go.In word and deed you made it plain,
The way that the wise should know:
Clinging to life is always in vain;
Letting it go, wins it again.
You loved your life, and you let it go.Ever lament! Ever rejoice!
Let tears and let laughter flow!
Heaven and earth still ring with your voice,
Thanks to your love, thanks to your choice:
You loved your life, and you let it go.
As always, sheet music for “You Loved Your Life, and You Let It Go” is available in our Free Stuff Area. Also, you can see and hear it being sung for a church service here.
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.
Pope Francis and Earth Day
When I sat down to write my Earth Day sermon this week, the first thing I did was turn up the heat. Oops …
A Tree in the Ever-Loving Now
I asked a tree to help me with my Easter sermon.
Palm Sunday
Here are some moderately interesting things about Palm Sunday, and one that’s really important.
Die Heilige Neugier
Science and religion should be friends; they have similar goals and similar weaknesses.
Lady Day
March 25th is the Feast of the Annunciation, otherwise known as Lady Day.
Congratulations! It’s a Person!
The story of Jesus healing a centurion’s slave hits one of the deepest notes of the Way of Jesus: the equality of all people in the eyes of God. We can take that lesson to heart by addressing the exclusion and oppression that folks with unpopular gender identities are now facing.
When There’s Nothing (More) We Can Do
Are you feeling, maybe, a little Lent-ed out already?
Legendary Literature and Celtic Dreams
The story of the Transfiguration is not a mere collection of facts. It’s a legend that rings with truths.
Eminently Practical
In Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, he gives some pretty plain teachings. Why do we act as if we’re excused from listening to them?
Everyday Prayer
Prayers for everyday occasions—like Rabbi Irwin Keller’s prayer for watching the news—help us to be recollected in God throughout the day.