good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this friday the 12th of june normally yesterday the 11th of june would have been sin barnabas day an important apostle but in fact it was the thursday following trinity sunday when we give thanks for the gift of the holy communion so today we keep the feast of sin barnabas the companion and encourager of paul his name means son of encouragement welcome wherever you are in the world our prayers are for you and we think of those particularly in any kind of distress in troubled societies and also those combating the coronavirus the world over oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind and as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this 12th morning of the months is psalm 62. on god alone my soul in stillness waits from him comes my salvation he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that i shall never be shaken how long will all of you assail me to destroy me as you would a tottering wall or a leaning fence they plot only to thrust me down from my place of honor lies are their chief delight they bless with their mouth but in their heart they curse wait on god alone in stillness so my soul for in him is my hope he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that i shall not be shaken in god is my strength and my glory god is my strong rock in him is my refuge put your trust in him always my people pour out your hearts before him for god is our refuge the peoples are but a breath the whole human race a deceit on the scales they are all together lighter than air put no trust in oppression in robbery take no empty pride though wealth increase set not your heart upon it god spoke once and twice i have heard the same that power belongs to god steadfast love belongs to you o lord for you repay everyone according to their deeds so we read this morning the lesson for sin barnabas day which is written in the acts of the apostles and we are in the fourth chapter beginning at the 32nd verse now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul and no one said that any of the things that belonged to them was their own they had everything in common and with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the lord jesus and great grace was upon them all there was not a needy person among them for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles feet and it was distributed to each as any had need thus joseph who was also called by the apostles barnabas which means son of encouragement a levite a native of cyprus sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet we read later in the acts of the apostles when barnabas is sent to antioch to encourage them that barnabas was a good man full of the holy spirit what a wonderful thing to have said about him and here he is this morning the person whom we honor this day and give thanks for as an encouragement to us the son of encouragement i have a friend whose theological and biblical opinions i respect greatly who believes that and i can give this credence the epistle to the hebrews was written by barnabas and when i ask why then he says well because it's so full of details of the priesthood and of the temple and here is one who understood all that as a levite and when i read the epistle to the hebrews in the new testament that theme is that we can never know we shall never know but what we do know is that he is described by the apostles as the son of encouragement today is the year's mind of the composer john ireland who died in 1962 in washington on this day and we give thanks for his music much of his music is sung by cathedral choirs his services in sea and in f and also his great anthem greater love hath no man than this but we probably know him best we ordinary folk who sing hymns we know him best for his wonderful tune to samuel crossman's words my song is love unknown my savior's love to me that's a tune which has given crossman's words wide acceptance and sometimes tunes do that well i remember an occasion first hearing handles messiah and that great chorus he shall purify the sons of levi that they may offer unto the lord an offering of it's righteousness quotation from the last book of the bible on the old testament the prophet malachi before ever the new testament begins he shall purify the sons of levi that they shall offer to the lord an offering of righteousness in barnabas that scripture is fulfilled one of the sons of levi a levite in always through his life and yet selling his field and coming to lay the proceeds wholly at the apostles feet an offering of righteousness and self-giving for with that offering he brought himself no offering of any kind is of any use in material terms unless the heart comes with it and on sin barnabas day we give thanks for this beginning of his ministry when as an apostle he actually comes to the apostles himself and lays his treasure at the apostles feet but the real treasure is the treasure of himself barnabas the levite the son of encouragement later and we can think about this this afternoon as evening prayer we shall think about his missionary journeys about his encouragement of saul the persecutor of the church and his acceptance of him and his courage and his taking of risks not only with with paul but with john mark his nephew in missionary journeys but for the moment this morning let's just rest ourselves with that beginning the son of levi in his ancestry one of the levites who came and embraced the messiah ship of christ and laid his treasure of himself as well as the proceeds of his field at the apostles feet encouraging others to do the same so then let's say our prayers on this morning and first of all we pray for dioceses in our anglican communion today the diocese of newark in the episcopal church praying for carlisle hughes the bishop there and his people and the diocese of ancole in uganda and bishop sheldon frederick muassigwa and his people there within our own diocese and within the county of kent we pray for all the food banks which are so necessary particularly at this time to give support to people we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for tim bishop at lambeth and on this day we ask that we ourselves may be encouragers of others as we keep barnabas in our mind bountiful god giver of all gifts who poured your spirit upon your servant barnabas and gave him grace to encourage others help us by his example to be generous in our judgments and unselfish in our service through jesus christ our lord amen and the collect for this week almighty and everlasting god you have given us your servants grace by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal trinity and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the unity keep us steadfast in this faith that we may ever more be defended from all adversities through jesus christ our lord amen so we pray each in our own language the prayer our lord taught us thinking of those across the world who need our prayers most but also thinking of those with thanksgiving whom we love and who love us and support us by their affection and also by their encouragement at this time of deep trouble for our humanity in combating covet 19 our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever are men so we keep silence for a moment to say our own prayers at this time of the day christ give you grace to follow his saints in faith and hope and love and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you and upon those whom you love and would pray for today and always amen