Highway to Hell
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HIGHWAY TO HELL
The Rev. J. Donald Waring
Grace Church in New York
The Second Sunday of Advent
December 8, 2024
Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. (Baruch 5:1)
Last Tuesday I read a news article about an unthinkable tragedy that occurred just over a year and a half ago. It was April 28, 2023, the wedding day of a south Carolina couple named Samantha Miller and Aric Hutchinson. The day was supposed to be the happiest of their life, and for five hours it was. In fact, in the midst of the celebration, the bride remarked that she wished it would never end. When the time came for them to leave the reception, the newly married husband and wife, along with two others from the bridal party, climbed aboard a specially decorated golf cart, for the short ride to the next event.
Suddenly, a car came careening down the road at 65 mph – 40 mph faster than the posted speed limit. The car slammed into the back of the golf cart with deadly force, killing Samantha Miller and seriously injuring the three other riders. The driver of the car, Jamie Lee Komoroski, was drunk, with a blood-alcohol level of more than three times the legal limit. She was arrested, finally pled guilty, and last week sentenced to 25 years in prison. The bride’s father, a man named Brad Warner, had this to say to Komoroski in his impact statement before the sentencing: “For the rest of my life I’m going to hate you. And when I arrive in hell and you come there, I’m going to open the door for you.”
I do not presume to judge Brad Warner. The burden of his grief and pain must be intolerable. But upon reading his words it struck me that he is quite clear about three things, at least. First, he knows that hatred is the highway to hell. Second, he knows that he himself is on it. Third, he seems to confess that he will be powerless to prevent himself from arriving at the road’s inevitable, grim destination. What can be done, what can be said to help him off the highway to hell?
In today’s first reading, we heard from Baruch (5:1-9), a mysterious figure in the Hebrew prophetic tradition. Who is Baruch? The fact is, we don’t really know. It could be that he was a scribe of the prophet Jeremiah, who preached during the Babylonian exile. All we can say for sure is that when the time came to close the canon of the Old Testament, and declare that certain books were in and others were out, Baruch didn’t make the cut. We have thirty-nine books in the Old Testament, including major and minor prophets. Then we have something called the Apocrypha. What is the Apocrypha? Well, if the books of the Bible were an NFL roster, you can think of the Apocrypha as the practice squad. Players on the practice squad obviously have some skills, but also some serious flaws in their game. You will rarely see them suited up on a Sunday. Baruch is in the Apocrypha. Baruch is on the practice squad. But here he is on Sunday, not only in uniform, but on the playing field. What does he have to say? Baruch would say this to Brad Warner and any others full of anger and rage: Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting.
What do you think of Baruch’s counsel? To me, on first reading, it reminds me of the song by Bobby McFerrin: Don’t worry, be happy. Here’s a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it note for note. Don’t worry, be happy. Don’t worry. Cheer up. Always look on the bright side of life, is what Baruch seems to be saying. Is that all that Baruch has to offer? No, his words run much deeper than an admonishment to put on a happy face. To those who were conquered, those whose daughters and sons were carried away into exile, Baruch encourages them to take the long view. No one is lost in the kingdom of God. God forgets no one. What is more, God is planning a reunion: Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look toward the east, and see your children gathered from west and east, at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them. For they went out from you on foot, led away by their enemies; but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory, as on a royal throne. Baruch is reminding his community and us too that God’s love always wins out over the powers of evil. For this reason we can take off the garment of our sorrow and affliction. For this reason we can rejoice.
Surely, we can take comfort in the promise of a future, joyful reunion with those we have loved and lost. But in the meantime, the temptation to get on the highway to hell can be almost irresistible. Full confession: last week I realized that I myself was taking steps along the road that leads to no good end. This fall we’ve had a series of overnight brazen break-ins at Grace Church. It’s been the same thing, twice, involving the exterior scaffolding. I can’t give you any more details because the police are investigating. After the first incident we installed an elaborate security system with a surveillance camera. So the second time we were able to see the three perpetrators. And one was a villain, and one was a vandal, and the third must have been a Visigoth. A Visigoth? What does a Visigoth look like? Well, this one was an overstuffed guy with a bad hairdo and an ill-fitting leather jacket. He looked like a Visigoth to me. Fortunately, the villain, vandal, and Visigoth took nothing of value, except for my faith in the goodness of human nature. It was a very small thing to begin with – smaller even than a mustard seed. I don’t know how they found it, but they did.
In addition to these old-style break-ins, I’ve glimpsed other threats we face. A few weeks ago we invited the church’s I.T. professional to visit our staff meeting and review the latest in online security. The consultant opened his laptop and showed us a screen that was recording the number of outside hits to our router. These were not friendly visitors to our website, but hackers – BOTS – bombarding our firewall with hundreds of different passwords every minute. The number stunned me. Here we are, trying to restore what moth and rust have corrupted, and all the while thieves are trying to break in a steal. We are trying to build up, they are trying to tear down. I found myself growing in hatred. I indulged in the scenario of coming face to face with these hackers and hooligans. Every time I did, I realized I was taking another willing step along the highway to hell.
So it was that I realized I was out of sorts with the things that are supposed to be most dear to me: the promises we all make in the Baptismal Covenant, and my ordination vows, just to name two. I needed something more than Baruch’s future oriented promises of justice and restoration. I needed what we hear about today in the Gospel of Luke (3:1-6) – what John called “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” How does one go about obtaining a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins? Let me tell you what I did. Last Sunday I came to church. You’re thinking, “Not a big deal, Don. Of course you came to church. You’re the rector. You’re paid to come to church.” Right you are. But last Sunday, having been out on Broadway with the NYPD at 2:30 am the night before, I didn’t just come to church. Rather, I let church come to me. I decided to immerse my spirit in everything the church has to offer. Fun fact: “to immerse” is the meaning of the verb, to baptize.
I immersed myself in church to uproot the hatred that was growing in my soul. It wasn’t long into the 9 am service before I encountered the Word. I wasn’t preaching last week, so I could listen to the reading from the Gospel of Luke as if for the first time. In Advent we hear the strange, apocalyptic readings about the second coming of Jesus, in power and great glory. Luke (21:25-36) records Jesus himself urging his followers to be ready: Be alert at all times, praying that you have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man. We had begun with the majestic hymn, “Lo, he comes with clouds descending.” Once verse of the hymn includes the warning,
Those who set at naught and sold him,
pierced and nailed him to the tree,
deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
shall the true Messiah see.
The hymn has always been my very favorite in all the Hymnal. The funny thing is, I had always assumed it would be other people who were deeply wailing. But the hymn and the reading put me on notice. The wailing could be mine if I didn’t get off the highway to hell.
Then came the Eucharist. Thanks be to God, our redemption does not come to us by way of our own merits or effort. It’s not just a matter of saying, “Oh, I’m walking along a bad path here. I’d better amend my ways.” Sometimes we are powerless to amend our ways. It is the power of God that gives us strength to escape the road to perdition. It is the life of Christ, given to us through bread and wine, that emboldens us to follow Jesus, rather than the devices and desires of our own hearts. And so it was last week at the altar, reading the words of the Eucharistic prayer, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ struck me as seldom before. Imagine: we and all God’s whole church are made one body with Jesus, so that he may dwell in us and we in him. Indeed, St. Paul would write that filled with the Spirit of Christ, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13,” and also, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Galatians 2:20).”
So the Word and the Sacrament conspired to bring about a good work in me. Finally, it was this Christian community, gathered together in Jesus’ name, that restored me to my right perspective. At coffee hour after the 11 am service, a number of families and individuals were working on Advent wreathes. The Advent wreath is a lovely custom that encourages us to count the weeks till the arrival of Jesus, the true light that is coming into the world. But an Advent wreath is also a subversive thing. As much as it is about the advance of light, it also proclaims the demise of darkness. The good people of Grace Church thought they were simply making Advent wreathes. Little did they know that with every branch of evergreen wrapped about the base of a candle, they were putting the darkness on notice. The message is, “time is running out, and soon the time will be up for evil and death.” The urgent summons to you and me is to be alert and ready, so that we can be among those singing Alleluia, and not among those deeply wailing.
I heard a funny little story recently, somewhat in the vein of C.S. Lewis and the Screwtape Letters. It seems that Satan was trying to devise a plan to corrupt the people of New York City, and completely possess their souls. Lacking just the right idea, the devil consulted with three of his demonic understudies. The first said, “Let me go talk to them. I will convince them that there is no heaven. They’ll fall into despair, and cease striving after the moral life. They’ll be all yours.” Satan thought for a moment and then concluded, “No, that won’t work. They know there’s a heaven. They have too many foretastes of it already. They live in the greatest city in the world. They have Central Park. They have the best pizza on earth. They have Broadway musicals with big tap dance numbers that can go on for 15 minutes. They know what heaven is like.”
The second demon proposed this: “Let me go talk to them. I’ll convince them that there is no hell. With no fear of consequences, they’ll run wild and live immoral lives. They’ll be all yours.” Again, Satan thought for a moment, and then concluded, “It’s a good idea, but it won’t work. They know there’s a hell. They have the New York Giants. They have the New York Jets. They have Broadway musicals with big tap dance numbers that can go on for 15 minutes. They know what hell is like.”
Finally, the third demon proposed a truly novel idea. “Let me go talk to them. I’ll convince them there is no hurry. The hatreds they are harboring and the grudges they are nursing – they’ll have time enough tomorrow to repent. There is no hurry.” Satan nodded his head approvingly and said, “Perfect. Go and tell them that there is no hurry.”
My friends, it is not for nothing today that we sing:
Lo! the Lamb so long expected,
comes with pardon down from heaven.
Let us haste with tears of sorrow,
one and all to be forgiven.