A Radical Act

The Rev. Canon Loren V. Lasch
Episcopal Center
Savannah, Georgia
April 18, 2026

A Radical Act
Sermon for the Ordination of Ben Jones, Ethan White, and Pierce Withers to the Sacred Order of Deacons
Luke 22:24-27

I invite you to take a moment this morning to envision some of the most radical acts you have heard of throughout history. Things that have altered the course of history and worked to put humanity on a better path. Perhaps you like me have thought of things like the suffragette movement, the Montgomery bus boycott, the Stonewall uprising. Or the actions of people like Harriet Tubman, Oskar Schindler, or Harvey Milk. 

Now take a moment to look around this room. At the beautiful flowers, the lovely vestments, the liturgical space arranged just so, in order to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. At a glance, there is nothing that we do today that resembles the radical acts named above. While Episcopalians are known to be many things…welcoming, faithful, traditional…but radical isn’t really one of them. For instance: our current Book of Common Prayer was written before I was born and we still refer to it as “new”!

However, the ordination of Ben, Ethan, and Pierce to the Sacred Order of Deacons is indeed radical, in the most basic sense of the word: foundational, fundamental, getting down to the roots.

We see the roots of the Jesus movement sprouting very clearly in today’s reading from Luke’s Gospel. Jesus and the Twelve are in Jerusalem, gathered in the upper room for the Passover meal. Previous chapters have seen disciples in close proximity to Jesus as he is preaching and teaching in the Temple. They have heard parables and exhortations designed to prepare them for

God’s reign. They have seen Jesus speak out against worldly power and false piety. And, in the verses just before today’s passage, they have just heard words that likely seemed very strange at the time, but for centuries since have brought healing and hope: “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

And today we join the disciples as they sit at the Passover table, with those words ringing in their ears, with memories of the previous days of Jesus’s teachings swimming in their heads. And what is the first thing they do? They argue over which one of them is the greatest. 

I imagine Jesus did not feel particularly thrilled with this response, given all that he had tried to teach the disciples during their time together. However, instead of replying in anger or frustration, Jesus takes a more radical approach: …”the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.” 

This goes against everything the disciples had ever known about greatness. The world they lived in was marked by dominance and power, where greatness went hand in hand with status and might. And yet here is Jesus telling them that greatness instead goes hand in hand with service and care. And beyond that, he tells them that he, who is powerful enough to perform miracles and cast out demons, is among them as one who serves. 

This is a foundational, fundamental belief that guides us in our liturgy today: our God serves, rather than dominates, and that is the specific call laid upon Ethan, Pierce, and Ben today. All of what we do here is to set aside these three ordinands to be among us as ones who serve, just as Jesus did. The vows they will make bring them back to the roots of Jesus’s example for us. A radical act. 

But the ministry Pierce, Ben, and Ethan are dedicated to this day is not simply serving for the sake of serving. Or even serving only for the sake of sharing God’s love with others. They are called to serve in ways that re-orient this broken world back to health and wholeness, back into relationship with the one who came among us to serve. 

Much like in the time of the disciples, our world places value on dominance, power, and might. On taking what’s rightfully ours, on pushing aside those who would get in our way, those we deem unworthy. Again and again we are made to think that empathy and kindness are signs of weakness, that our needs must always outweigh the needs of others. 

Deacons are set aside to help us to see that those lessons from the world are nothing more than dangerous lies. There are so many people living under the weight of those lies that need to hear that there is a better way. A way where greatness is measured by the number of lives helped, rather than the number of enemies trampled. A way where getting ahead entails lifting others up rather than tearing them down. A way where success comes through service. 

Ben, Ethan, and Pierce, today we witness you become Deacons, and we ask you to be icons of God’s grace and love, to bring the needs of the world to the church and to show us how to reach out our hands to meet those needs, not with might but with care. As you promise to seek not your glory but the glory of the Lord Christ, we ask that you help us do the same, bringing us back to the root of our call as followers of Jesus. We ask you to help radicalize us.

For the full photo album, click here.