Jesus said, “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me” (In Mark 9). And we see that in action in the life of Harriet Starr Cannon, one of the first American nuns in the Anglican tradition (remembered on May 7th in the Episcopal Church). And these two things come together on this day. So they both become part of the liturgy for our church’s Wednesday Eucharist this year, in which I’m giving the sermon. 

So I’m breaking down the Gospel reading from Mark 9:33-37, and connecting a key perspective from this passage to Cannon’s life and ministry.

breaking down mark 9:33-37

They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 

I love seeing questions that God asks that He already knows the answer to (like Adam and Eve, “Where are you?”). It’s usually more because we need to hear our own answer more than He does. When the guys start mumbling, you have to think that Jesus likely already knows what they are talking about. So He’s probably not asking for His own benefit. He more likely need to recognize wanted them to say it themselves. But often, we don’t want to hear our own words when they can be convicting of our own faults.

But they kept silent, 

How else does a guilty conscience respond when we know the answer isn’t what He wants to hear because even we know it was wrong? I see this with my kids all the time! When they get called out for something and they know the second they get called out that they’re in the wrong, they stay silent (or worse, start to lie to cover up and self-protect).

for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. 

Here’s the crazy thing… JUST before this, Jesus has foretold His death and resurrection. And what are they talking (I imagine arguing) about? Which one of them is the best! 

Sitting down, He called the twelve

As a dad, I can relate to this too. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to sit (likely from exhaustion of having to have the same conversations over and over again), and say, “Guys! C’mon!” It’s a teachable moment opportunity, for sure. He loves these guys and wants them to get it right. So it’s just time to stop what we’re doing and calibrate.

and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” 

This is something I’ve tried to teach my own kids. And it’s a tough one to really get. It inevitably turns into them telling each other that they are the worst as a way of trying to be kind. Ugh! Will they ever get it?!  

Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”

And this fits with the person we remember today, Harriet Starr Cannon.

a glimpse into the life of harriet starr cannon

She was a nun who founded the Sisterhood of St. Mary, one of the first orders of Augustinian nuns in the Anglican Communion and which remains dedicated to social service.

As a deaconesses, she assisted the poor in New York City and helped found St. Luke’s Hospital.

During a visit from one clergyman, he noticed: “[Cannon] rocking, with a little boy laying wrapped in a blanket within her arms, very ill with the loathsome disease. She was singing a hymn for him, and the poor child smiled as he looked up in her face and forgot his pain and restlessness.”

The collect (prayer) for Harriet Starr Cannon’s remembrance goes like this:

Gracious God, you called Harriet Starr Cannon and her companions to revive the religious life in The Episcopal Church and to dedicate their lives to you: Grant that we, after their example, may ever surrender ourselves to the revelation of your holy will; through our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

final thoughts

That is what Jesus calls us to live like. 

This life of “being the last and servant of all,” and being one who, “receives one child like this in My name receives Me,” is really about surrendering our lives to His will. We need to take our eyes off ourselves and look for where He would be, and get ourselves immersed in that.

So may we forget for a moment our own importance as we look at those in this lost and hurting and broken world, wrap them up in a blanket of Christ’s Love, and sing them a hymn until they see nothing else but His face singing over them. Amen.