Roman Barabakh – Art & Theology

LOOK: Little Christ by Roman Barabakh

Barabakh, Roman_Little Christ — Roman Barabakh (Ukrainian, 1990–), *Маленький Христос* (Little Christ), 2018. Cyanotype on paper. Edition 2 of 6.

LISTEN: “He Has Come, the Christ of God” | Words by Horatius Bonar, 1857 | Music by Ryan DeLange, 2016 | Performed by Janelle Jackson and Mike Juday, 2017

He has come, the Christ of God:
Left for us his glad abode;
Stooping from his throne of bliss
To this darksome wilderness.

Refrain 1:
He has come, the Prince of Peace:
Come to bid our sorrows cease;
Come to scatter with his light
All the shadows of our night.

He, the mighty King, has come,
Making this poor earth his home:
Come to bear our sin’s sad load,
Son of David, Son of God.

Refrain 2:
He has come, whose Name of grace
Speaks deliverance to our race:
Left for us his glad abode,
Son of Mary, Son of God.

Unto us a Child is born:
Ne’er has earth beheld a morn,
Among all the morns of time,
Half so glorious in its prime.

Refrain 3:
Unto us a Son is given:
He has come from God’s own heaven,
Bringing with him from above
Holy peace and holy love.

While he was a worship pastor at Bayou City Fellowship in Houston, Ryan DeLange wrote a new tune for this nineteenth-century Christmas hymn by Horatius Bonar, a Scotsman who is best known for “Be Still, My Soul.” To hear DeLange discuss what drew him to this hymn, see season 2, episode 2 of the Hymnistry podcast, which aired December 5, 2016. He performs the song at 9:22 of the episode, and at 27:01, Pastor Jacob Breeze charges listeners to “keep the party going” for all twelve days of Christmas.

Click here for the chord chart.

The 2016 video above is from Scarlet City Church in Columbus, Ohio. The singer is Janelle Jackson, and she’s accompanied on guitar by Rev. Mike Juday, who was the church’s music pastor at the time but who is now the associate rector of Village Church Anglican in Greenville, South Carolina.

Roman Barabakh (Ukrainian, 1990–), *Descent of the Holy Spirit*, 2017. Cyanotype print, 54 × 42.2 сm. Available for sale via Iconart.

“I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live . . .”—Ezekiel 37:14

+++

SONG: “Abbeville” (Come, Holy Spirit, Come) | Words by Benjamin Beddome (published posthumously in 1818) | American folk tune from The Sacred Harp, arr. Elisha J. King (1844) | Performed by Marsha Genensky of Anonymous 4, on American Angels: Songs of Hope, Redemption, and Glory (2005)

You can hear this song—and twelve others—on “Anonymous 4: The Sacred Harp,” a Saint Paul Sunday radio broadcast that aired on American Public Media in September 2006. The entire concert-interview is worth a listen, or you can skip to 7:49.

Anonymous 4’s a cappella version of “Abbeville” is my favorite, but another nice version is the Wilder Adkins–Gabrielle Jones duet with acoustic guitar accompaniment. There’s also Liz Janes’s arrangement, with musical saw, commissioned in 2008 for the album Help Me to Sing: Songs of the Sacred Harp but rereleased in 2016 on Cardiphonia Music’s Hollow Square Hymnal.

Come, Holy Spirit, come,
With energy divine,
And on this poor, benighted soul,
With beams of mercy shine.

From the celestial hills,
Light, life, and joy dispense;
And may I daily, hourly feel
Thy quick’ning influence.

Melt, melt this frozen heart;
This stubborn will subdue;
Each evil passion overcome,
And form me all anew.

Mine will the profit be,
But Thine shall be the praise;
And unto Thee will I devote
The remnant of my days.

This post belongs to the weekly series Artful Devotion. If you can’t view the music player in your email or RSS reader, try opening the post in your browser.

To view all the Revised Common Lectionary scripture readings for Pentecost Sunday, cycle B, click here.

Tag: Roman Barabakh

Christmas, Day 10: He Has Come

Come, Energy Divine (Artful Devotion)