Dear Friends,

As some of you know, this evening I’ll be serving as a panelist alongside leaders from several faith traditions. We’ll be discussing the spiritual practices that nurture both our inner and outer lives, as well as elements of our traditions that have been misinterpreted or that stand in the way of flourishing. In preparing for this discussion, I’ve had the opportunity to communicate with some of the panelists, who, like me, wrestle with some of the more difficult teachings in our sacred texts.

For instance, in this week’s gospel reading, Jesus says to his disciples: "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell [Gei-Hinnom], to the unquenchable fire!"

As someone who doesn’t believe in hell or in a God who would send people there, I find myself asking: what do I do with these words of Jesus? Everything I love about him seems at odds with what appears to be a threat of divine punishment.

Fortunately, there’s more to the word translated as “hell.” Gei-Hinnom was a real place. In Jesus’s day, it was Jerusalem’s dump, where the city’s trash was burned. Before that, it was a site of ritual sacrifices, where people were burned alive to the deity Moloch. To me, it’s clear that these fires, however hellish, have nothing to do with God.

Rather than a threat, I hear Jesus pleading: Cut your losses! Better to let go of what’s destructive in your life now than to throw yourself into a literal dumpster fire—offering yourself as a sacrifice to whatever “not-God” is trying to destroy you!

It doesn’t matter what the “not-God” is. Maybe it’s a bad decision that spirals out of control because we’re too proud, hurried, or fearful to face reality. Or perhaps we throw good money after bad, drink or eat too much to numb the shame of doing so, or retreat into cynicism to deal with fear and hopelessness. We might lie to a loved one to cover up a mistake, betraying their trust and digging the hole deeper because the light of trught feels unbearable.

But that’s the call to each of us: Come into the light. Face the consequences, however awful they may seem. Stop clinging to what’s already lost, so you can be free. It’s terrifying—until the moment you realize who is calling: the One who can heal all things.

In the words of writer Erica Lloyd, “There is no consequence so painful that God cannot heal you of its sting. There is no shame so great that it runs deeper than God’s love. We can be brave enough to cut our losses because we have so much more to live for.”

Amen to that.

Amelie+