good evening and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this evening of the 12th day of june and today we're keeping the feast of sin barnabas the apostle because yesterday thursday we kept the feast of the thanksgiving for the holy communion corpus christi so we transferred this feast to today to give us a chance to give thanks for the ministry of the apostles saint barnabas oh lord open thou our lips and our mouth shall show forth thy praise oh god make speed to save us oh lord make haste to help us glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen praise ye the lord the lord's name be praised the son for this twelfth evening of the month psalm 65 thou o god art praised in zion and unto thee shall the vow be performed in jerusalem thou that hearest the prayer unto thee shall all flesh come my misdeeds prevail against me o be thou merciful unto our sins blessed is the one whom thou choosest and receiveth unto thee they shall dwell in thy court and be satisfied with the pleasures of thy house even of thy holy temple thou shalt show us wonderful things in thy righteousness oh god of our salvation thou that are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of them that remain in the broad sea who in his strength set as fast the mountains and is guarded about with power who stilleth the raging of the sea and the noise of the waves and the madness of the people they also that dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth shall be afraid at thy tokens thou that make us the outgoings of the morning and evening to praise thee thou visitest the earth and blessed it thou makest it very plenteous the river of god is full of water thou preparest their corn for so thou provides for the earth thou waterst her furrows thou sendest rain into the little valleys thereof thou makest it soft with the drops of rain and blessest the increase of it thou crownest the year with thy goodness and thy clouds drop fatness they shall drop upon the dwellings of the wilderness and the little hills shall rejoice on every side the folds shall be full of sheep the valleys also shall stand so thick with corn that they shall laugh and sing glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen our first lesson is written in the 12th chapter of the book ecclesiastes beginning at the ninth verse besides being wise the preacher also taught the people knowledge weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care the preacher sought to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote words of truth the words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings they are given by one shepherd beware of anything beyond these for of making many books there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh the end of the matter all has been heard fear god and keep his commandments for this is our whole duty for god will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing whether good or evil ends our old testament lesson we say the song of mary the magnificat my soul doth magnify the lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in god my savior for he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden for behold from henceforth all generation shall call me blessed for he that is mighty hath magnified me and holy is his name and his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations he has showed strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts he hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble and meek he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away he remembering his mercy hath opened his servant israel as he promised to our forefathers abraham and his seed forever glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen the second lesson is written in the ninth chapter of the acts of the apostles beginning at the 26th verse when saul had come to jerusalem he attempted to join the disciples but they were all afraid of him for they did not believe that he was a disciple but barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles it declared to them how on the road saul had seen the lord who spoke to him and how at damascus he had preached boldly in the name of jesus so saul went in and out among them at jerusalem preaching boldly in the name of the lord and he spoke and disputed against the hellenists but they were seeking to kill him so when the brothers learned this they brought him down to caesarea and sent him off to tarsus so the church throughout all judea and galilee and samaria had peace and was being built up and walking in the fear of the lord and in the comfort of the holy spirit it multiplied here ends our second lesson lord now let is thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou has prepared before the face of all people to be a light to lighten the gentiles and to be the glory of thy people israel glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen i believe in god the father almighty maker of heaven and earth and in jesus christ his only son now lord who was conceived by the holy ghost born of the virgin mary suffered under pontius pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of god the father almighty from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead i believe in the holy ghost the holy catholic church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen let us pray lord have mercy upon us christ to have mercy upon us lord have mercy upon us 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 amen [Music] our lord show thy mercy upon us and grant us thy salvation o lord save the queen and mercifully hear us when we call upon thee and do thy ministers with righteousness and make thy chosen people joyful o lord save thy people and bless sign inheritance give peace in our time o lord because there is none other that fighteth for us but only thou o god oh god make clean our hearts within us and take not thy holy spirit from us o lord god almighty who did stand you thy holy apostle barnabas with singular gifts of the holy ghost leave us not we beseech the destitute of thy manifold gifts nor yet of grace to use them alway to thy honour and glory through jesus christ our lord amen oh god from whom all holy desires all good councils and all just works to proceed give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give that both our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness through the merits of jesus christ our savior amen lighten our darkness we beseech thee o lord and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy only son our savior jesus christ amen the feast of the apostle barnabas as we saw it morning prayer barnabas after the day of pentecost as the message of the good news and of jesus began to be proclaimed by the apostles was one of the first to join them he was a levite from cyprus but he sold a piece of land which he had and brought the money and laid it as a gift at the apostles feet for the life of the early church he was very much part of that life we read later in the acts of the apostles that barnabas was a good man and full of the holy spirit and of faith but more than that and his name means son of encouragement he was someone who took risks for others someone who trusted others when other folk couldn't bring themselves to do so for fear of what the other person represented and chief among their fear was fear of saul who had been persecuting christians throwing them into prison they weren't called christians in those days they were called followers of the way and then suddenly saul comes back to jerusalem with the story of having had a vision on the road to damascus and how he had seen jesus had seen the light been baptized by ananias there in damascus and now returned to lend his strength to the apostles and their followers in jerusalem no wonder they were afraid he could have been anything he could have been trying to insinuate himself amongst them to find out who they all were and arrest them all and have them thrown into prison they knew he had letters from the high priest to do just that but barnabas noted noticed something about saul which was different he listened to his teaching and knew somehow by intuition and the holy spirit guiding him by grace that this man was actually true that something amazing had occurred so he had the courage to take him by the hand lead him to the others and say yes we can trust him embraced him into the life of the early church and more than that later after barnabas had been sent to antioch to see what was going on there and needed help there he went to tarsus to find saul later known as paul in his new christian vocation and barnabas and paul became companions in mission in a great missionary journey setting off into lands unknown taking risks and doing more than that embracing those who were gentiles not of the jewish faith and seeing that the holy spirit came to them also barnabas took with him his young nephew mark who grew afraid of all that was going on and went back at that time but the missionary journey continued we know quite a lot about barnabas from st luke sacks of the apostles but we can guess more we can also guess something of his stature and almost what his presence was like for when paul and barnabas go to lystra and after an act of healing the people there think that they are gods come down from olympus and the priest of zeus comes out to sacrifice to them it's interesting that they think that it's barnabas who is the great god zeus his stature and his presence must have been very powerful almost majestic but his standing came from grace in the holy spirit and paul they saw as hermes the messenger he obviously spoke well the apostles stopped them at once saying turn away from these things and turn to the true god who gives you rain and good crops and is full of life in creation but at that time the people in leicester are not ready to hear it nevertheless despite the dangers barnabas and paul go on until they can return to the council in jerusalem and speak for the wider ministry of which people there are suspicious but barnabas is the one who takes risks and encourages them to embrace new people new ways it's at this time when they're setting off for a new missionary journey that barnabas wants to give mark his nephew a second chance but paul says no someone who has failed us there's no place for in this missionary journey and the dispute was so sharp that barnabas taking the risk again with mark and thank god he did from what mark gave us later separated from sin paul and as paul went off with silas to his second missionary journey and that's the one we follow in the acts of the apostles barnabas with mark sails away to cyprus we hear really no more of him but on this day we give great thanks for all that we do know about him and for the ministry he accomplished for the seed he sowed must have gone very far beyond cyprus and beyond again so that on this day we are glad to give thanks for the son of encouragement barnabas that precious gift which we so much need we need it we need encouragement from others for so often we're afraid to take risks or trust in another but also like any gift of grace we not only need to receive it we need to give it and be children of encouragement ourselves to young and old particularly at this time when there is so much fear and so much loneliness in this time of lockdown so much need to support each other on this day let's all pledge ourselves to be messengers of encouragement like barnabas and give thanks for that gift of the holy spirit so we keep silence for a moment and make our own prayers for this evening praying for those whom we love and those also whom we would pray for in any kind of danger or difficulty praying also that we may be messengers and heralds of encouragement almighty god who has given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee and just promised that when two or three are gathered together in thy name thou wilt grant their requests fulfill now o lord the desires and petitions of thy servants as may be most expedient for them granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth and in the world to come life everlasting amen unto god's most gracious mercy and protection we commit you the lord bless you and keep you the lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you his peace the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you those whom you love and those whom you would pray for tonight and always amen