Audio: Noon Service Hosted by the HDS Episcopal/Anglican Fellowship

20200325 Noon Service - 2020-03-24, 13.40

BEN FREEMAN: Good morning, my name is Ben Freeman. I'm a member of the noon service committee. And I want to welcome you to this first experiment of doing noon service via podcast. As you are no doubt aware, we are in the midst of a global public health emergency that has tested all of us in our ability to adapt. 

And in this time of great spiritual distress, we, as the noon service committee, wanted to make sure that we were still providing a space in which members of our community could offer a kind of spiritual sustenance. So we hope very much that this podcast, which we will continue to do in the coming weeks, will serve as that kind of spiritual sustenance for you. We're so glad you're here. 

Welcome to the Harvard Divinity School noon service. Each week, we aspire anew to these postures of welcome and vulnerability with ourselves and one another. In this hour, may we find ourselves in a space of truth and openness. 
May our leaders, the HDS Episcopal and Anglican fellowship, share their traditions in a spirit of hospitality with those who may not understand what they do or why, having the courage to be true to their traditions with an open heart. As participants, may we be open and present with our peers in their own context. May we be willing to experience the unknown. 

In this time and in this assembly, may we embrace each responsibility with earnestness and compassion for our companions, that we may travel different paths. May we find solidarity, comfort, and hope in our common purpose as a community of seekers. As always, at the beginning of noon service, we offer prayers and meditations of our community. 

We hold in mind and heart all of those suffering from coronavirus or COVID-19. We hold in mind and heart all of those caring for the suffering, our nurses, our doctors, our other essential workers in health care institutions. We hold in mind and heart, new ministers and community leaders learning to lead at a distance, anyone else putting themselves in danger to go to their jobs. 

We hold in mind and hearts, people in situations of vulnerability, whether that be people incarcerated, people without homes, people facing evictions, or people who have lost their jobs. And we hold in mind and heart all of the students who have been displaced in the midst of this crisis and are learning how to be in school in a different way this week. 

REGINA WALTON: Welcome to the Harvard Divinity School virtual noon service offering for March 25, 2020. I'm Regina Walton, the denominational counselor for Episcopal and Anglican students at HDS. The HDS Episcopal Anglican fellowship is offering a service of noonday prayer from our book of Common Prayer. 

On the calendar of the church year in many christian traditions, March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation, the day when we remember the angel Gabriel's appearance to the Virgin Mary as described in the Gospel of Luke. Mary says yes to God and consents to become the God bearer, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Though we celebrate Mary's encounter with the angel as a feast. And though it is depicted in art with all kinds of beautiful effects of light and gorgeous textiles and lilies blooming, this year especially, we can remember that it was a fearful meeting too. Mary was alone when she met the angel. 

Many of us are feeling very alone these days and anxious about what is in store for us. May God speak to us in our times of solitude and anxiety, as God spoke to Mary. And may we have the courage to do what God asks us to do and be who God asks us to be in these difficult days. 

O God, make speed to save us. O Lord, make haste to help us. Glory to the father and to the son and to the Holy spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen. 
CHRISTOPHER HAUSFELD: Hello, my name is Christopher Hausfeld, I'm the director of music and ritual here at Harvard Divinity School. And I grew up in the Episcopalian tradition. One of my favorite parts of that tradition is the way that we sing the Psalms. And so I'd like to share with you some verses of Psalm 40 today. 

SPEAKER 1: The Lord has put a new song in my mouth. A song of praise to our God. Great things are that you have done, O Lord, my God. How great your wonders and your plans for us. 
There is none who can be compared with you or that I could make them known and tell them. But they are more than I can count. In a sacrifice and offering, you take no pleasure. You have given me years to hear you. 
Burnt offering and sin offering, you have not required. And so I said, behold, I come. In the roll of the book, it is written concerning me. I love to do your will, O my God. 

Your lies deep in my heart. I proclaimed righteousness in the great congregation. Behold, I did not restrain my lips. And that, O Lord, you know. Your righteousness, have I not hidden in my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your deliverance. 

I have not concealed your love and faithfulness from the great congregation. The Lord has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. 

SPEAKER 2: The gospel of Jesus Christ according to Luke, chapter 1, verse 26 to 38. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man, whose name was Joseph of the House of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 

And he came to her and said, greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greetings this might be. The angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. And you will name him Jesus. 

He will be great and will be called the son of the most high. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor, David. He will reign over the House of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there will be no end. 

Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I am a virgin? The angel said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be holy. He will be called Son of God. 
And now, your relative, Elizabeth, in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month for her, who was said to be barren, for nothing will be impossible with God. Then Mary said, here I am, the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word. Then the angel departed from her. 

JONATHAN SMITH: Hello, beloved community, my name is Jonathan Smith and I'm a second year MDiv here at HDS. And I'm in the process of becoming an Episcopal priest. I'm going to quickly offer a spiritual reflection. 
And this is-- it's not a sermon. And I'm guessing you're probably not an Anglican or an Episcopalian and that's totally fine. And you might not even be a Christian and that's also totally fine. My goal is to hopefully offer a little bit of spiritual solace because this is a very, very difficult time. 

This is a moment when the ground underneath us is shaking and we don't know when it's going to stop shaking. We don't know what the ground is going to look like when it's done shaking. And it's hard to know where to turn for solace and comfort. And in a lot of ways, that's the perfect-- it's a perfect time for this message in our liturgical calendar, this Annunciation that we're celebrating. 

So I'm a big fan of Abraham Joshua Heschel. He was a rabbi and a Jewish theologian of the last century, who had some amazing stuff to say. And I'm paraphrasing here, but he said something that's really stuck with me that, God is not nice. God's not your nice uncle. God is an earthquake. 

And when God really breaks through-- even if you don't believe in God, just bear with me here for a second. When the transcendent, when the divine, when real truth breaks through, it's not necessarily a warm, fuzzy thing. It's not necessarily this peaceful, blissful comfort. In fact, very often and almost always, it's the other way around. And I think we're in a time like that. 

One of the reasons that I-- I grew up Episcopalian, and I left the tradition when I was early in my adulthood, early adulthood and came back to it again. And one of the reasons I did that was because it always-- I found that there's this subtlety and there's this texture that's perennial that always speaks to me. There's always a relevance to my life. 

And it speaks-- it generally speaks to where I am on my spiritual journey in a way that doesn't really require a lot of mental gymnastics. And I was thinking about it today that this time that we're in of social isolation or distancing and being pared down to the absolute essentials of life, well, of course, that happens during Lent. So Lent is this very brief and very austere period in our christian calendar, 40 days of preparing for Easter. 

So it happens during that last slog of winter, when it's just like we want it to be over, and it's cold, and it's just like you got to really power through. And it's meant to replicate the time that Jesus spent fasting and praying in the desert and tuning into what really matters. So maybe it's just a coincidence. I think it's probably not a coincidence. I think it's the perfect pairing for Lent. 

And I think that it's counterintuitive, and it goes against the culture that we live in. It goes against the things that we're told to value and to strive for and care about because it forces us back down to a reality that we sometimes don't want to tune into. But the more that we tune that deepest reality out, the further away we get from God or the further away we get from wholeness and the further away we get from being our full true selves. 

So we're fairly far in the Lent. We're in week four of Lent. And we have a few, about a week left. And today, we celebrate a major feast day. It's the Annunciation of our Lord. 

So one of the things that I just love about the christian tradition is that God has a way of just plucking ordinary people out of time, out of these random otherwise unremarkable folks and bestowing them with a tremendous cosmic significance. And I think, again, that's not a coincidence. I think that there's a message there. I think that's who all of us are called to be. 

And Mary, going about her business, the angel appears, and you can imagine how disruptive that was for her. God is going to be incarnate. He's going to take on this human form. And he's going to do it through her and through her body and through her life and her existence. 

And the narrative is starting now. The whole cosmic story is starting now. And it's not going to be a story that's all sunshine and lollipops, it's not going to be something that keeps us in our place of comfort. And it's not going to be something that doesn't challenge everything we think we know about this world and this life and what matters. 

And I think that most meaningful, transcendent wisdom in every spiritual tradition arrives in paradox. So everything in our christian conception of things hinges on what we're about to do in Easter, the Resurrection. So we participate in eternal life through death, not human sacrifice. Sometimes, it gets interpreted that way, but it's not what it is. 

We have to die to the flesh to be reborn to the spirit. And nobody wants to die to the flesh. We're embodied beings too. We have our egos. We have our desires. We have the things that we want and that we think are going to bring us happiness. But those things don't bring us happiness. 

And if we just follow our own embodied desires, it doesn't get us where we want to be. But we have to be shaken out of it. We have to be shaken out of this temporal reality that's not true. 

And it is an earthquake and it's not fun. But there is something transcendent in there. And in that process of being open to the vulnerability, being open to the woundedness, that's where we encounter God, that's where the spirit breaks through. And I hope that, again, wherever you are in your journey and whatever you're experiencing, I hope that you're able to be vulnerable and to accept this time on its own terms. 

And it might not end great. It might not be the way we want it to end. But there will be wisdom, and there will be divine truth, and there will be a spirit breaking through. So God bless you and be well. 

ANNE STETSON: This is Anne Stetson. We'll turn now in our service to say together the prayers. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. And now, let us say together the Lord's Prayer. 

Our father, who art in heaven, halloweth 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. Lord, hear our prayer and let our cry come to you. Let us pray. Dear God, we ask that you send your inspiration into our hearts to direct and rule us according to your will, to comfort us all in this particularly challenging time to defend us from all error and to lead us into all truth doing your will at all times, saying yes to what you ask of us as Mary did. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen. 

Please offer your prayers silently aloud for those in your lives, who you are especially concerned with and for, be they friends, family, community. I'll start by saying, dear God, we ask your particular protection for those who are working in hospitals and community clinics and on the streets tending the sick, tending the poor. Please never let them doubt that you are with them. 

Are there other prayers? We'll conclude our prayers then by saying, let us bless the Lord. Thanks be to God. And now, we'll turn to the closing song. 

CAROLYN: My name is Carolyn, and I would like to invite you to join in singing the words of the Magnificat, Mary's song, the words that we celebrate on the Feast of the Annunciation. 
[MUSIC PLAYING]

My soul is filled with joy, as I sing to God, my Savior. You have loads upon your servant. You have visited your people. And holy is your name through all generations. Everlasting is your mercy to the people you have chosen. And Holy is your name. 

I am lonely as a child. But I know from this day forward that my name will be remembered, for all will call me blessed. And holy is your name through all generations. Everlasting is your mercy to the people you. I've chosen. And holy Is your name. 

I proclaim the power of God. You do marvels for your servants. Though, you scattered the proud hearted and destroy the might of princes. And holy is your name through all generations. 

Everlasting is your mercy to the people you have chosen. And holy is your name. To the hungry, you give food. Send the rich away and empty. In your mercy, you are mindful of the people you have chosen. 
And holy is your name through all generations. Everlasting is your mercy to the people you have chosen. And holy is your name. 
In your love, you now fulfill what you promise to your people. I will praise you, Lord, my Savior. Everlasting is your mercy. 
And holy is your name through all generations. Everlasting is your mercy to the people you have chosen. And holy is your name. 

SPEAKER 3: On behalf of the noon service committee, I would like to thank the HDS Episcopal and Anglican fellowship for their authentic offerings today. May the power of what they have shared direct and sustain us from this time forth until we meet again. And may we all go in peace.