541. St. Barnabas Hymn

The feast of St. Barnabas is June 11. Readings appointed for it are Isaiah 45:5-12, Acts 11:19-30 and 13:1-3, and Mark 6:7-13. Barnabas is he whom Luke, in Acts 11, described as "a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith," and whom the church of Antioch – where followers of the Way were first called Christians – sent with Saul (i.e., Paul) to do mission work. As I'm currently shagged out following my prolonged squawk about SS. Philip & James yesterday, I won't detain you further before proposing the following hymn. The art is an icon of St. Barnabas from the museum in his honor in Salamis, Cyprus, image by Gerhard Haubold under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license, which represents more hyperlinks than I feel like creating right now so if you're interested, look them up here.

The Father uttered, "Though you know me not,
I give you light and peace and gird for labor."
Though we, His handiwork, had never sought
To know Him, every man and child and neighbor
Must learn His promises and His commands
From Zion's pile unto the farthest lands.

The Spirit uttered, "Consecrate to Me
These men to do the work for which I call them,"
Then Barnabas and Saul He named to be
Such that nor chains nor shipwreck need appall them.
Through prayer and fasting and the church's hands
He sent them to preach Christ in heathen lands.

The Savior uttered, "Go and preach the word;
I give you power o'er the unclean spirit.
Then blessed be the house where it is heard;
It will go hard for those who will not hear it."
O Lord, with all humility and fear
We pray, bend to Your word our heart and ear!

With fear indeed, yea, with glad acclamation
Your word we now speak back in prayer and praise:
For You have spread the message of salvation
Through good and faithful men, from early days
Down to our time. Still consecrate and call
Such heralds, till Your gospel reaches all.