I’m not sure about that… Hell – April 7, 2024

Raleigh Mennonite Church

Colossians 1:15-23

Melissa started a new sermon series this week, "I'm not sure about that," exploring questions, wonderings, and themes that come from our congregation. The most frequent submission was around the subject of hell.

We live our whole lives bearing consequences, around retribution and punishment. If you make a bad choice with money, no one is coming to bail you out. If you break the law, you go to jail. We want bad people to get what's coming to them. But that should also give us pause.

Just a few months ago, Pope Francis was asked what he thought about the afterlife. "I like to think hell is empty," he told an Italian reporter. "At least I hope it is." Melissa also hopes that it is, and that hope is a core of her Christian faith. Core to a belief that no one is too far gone. No one is the worst thing they have done.