Instead of a sermon this morning, I took questions from the congregation and tried my best to answer them, without the opportunity to be prepared. Here are the questions and answers, as best as I can remember and recreate them.
(1) We sang "All Things Bright And Beautiful," but did God also create the dark things and the things that aren't so beautiful?
Yes, God created everything. The Book of Colossians says that "The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him." So everything that exists has its origins in God. We are also told in the story of creation in Genesis that everything God created is good and that God gave us dominion over all that had been created. Therefore, things created by God become less than good and beautiful depending on how we choose to use them. So, for example, if the atom is indeed the "building block" of creation, we know that human beings have used the atom for both good and evil. This is related to the idea of human free will. God will give us all good things, and all things that God gives us are good. How we use them, however, may be good or bad. The hymn, of course, speaks of "all things bright and beautiful" because it's intended to be celebratory. Monty Python, of course, did a paradoy of the hymn called "All Things Dull And Ugly." Which actually serves to make the point - everything created is good, regardless of how we perceive them; everything has a purpose. But we can use them according to God's purposes or in defiance of God's purposes.
(2) What does it mean to say that Jesus went to hell?
There are some suggestions from Scripture that Jesus went to hell, especially Ephesians 4:8-10 and 1 Peter 3:18-20, but those scriptures aren't entirely clear as to what they're referring to, whether sheol or hell (they aren't the same thing.) The idea that Jesus went to hell comes more from The Apostles Creed, which says that "he descended into hell ..." I think the intent of the statement is that God, incarnate in Jesus, is in solidarity with the human condition, and God must experience those things which humans could experience - including the possibility of a descent into hell. Deciding what's actually meant by "hell," of course would take a long time, but it's essentially a spiritual state of separation from God.
(3) Why did Jesus drive an evil spirit into a herd of pigs, and why were the men herding pigs in the first place?
The reference is to Matthew 8:28-33:
"When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 'What do you want with us, Son of God?' they shouted. 'Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?' Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons begged Jesus, 'If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.' He said to them, 'Go!' So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region."
The demons would have been driven into the herd of pigs probably because Jesus was Jewish, and pigs were considered unclean under Jewish law. What better place for demons? The men herding the pigs were likely not Jewish. Jesus in this passage is "in the region of the Gadarenes." So this is probably one of the few times in the Gospels where we see Jesus interacting with non-Jews. Not being under the Jewish law, they would have no objection to herding pigs. As to why pigs were unclean, most seem to believe that this arose from concerns about public health. Pork meat kept in less than ideal conditions (and the desert regions are hot) can be very dangerous to human health.
(4) Why don't we recite The Apostles Creed in church?
Some churches do, and some don't. In the United Church today if we do recite a creed, it's more likely to be "A New Creed" - a Creed written by and for the United Church in the late 1960's. I tend not to use Creeds at all, simply because the United Church is, in theory, non-credal - which means that a person does not have to subscribe to a particular "creed" to belong to the United Church. There is no required doctrinal litmus test, in other words. Basically, the United Church believes that the New Testament is a sufficient basis on which to "hang one's faith," so to speak. Some United Churches do recite various Creeds. I generally don't have us do that, simply because to recite a Creed on a regular basis, when the members of the congregation aren't required to subscribe to the Creed, gives the impression that the Creed is supposed to represent what each individual must believe as a member of the church. I do believe Creeds can be helpfully used by people in personal devotions, though.
The non-credal status of the United Church was one of the main sticking points between the new United Church and the Presbyterian Church at the time of church union in 1925. The United Church decided to be non-credal, but the Presbyterian Church had been a credal church (the Westminster Confession) - and one third of the Presbyterian Church decided in 1925 that it couldn't join a non-credal church.
(5) What does it mean to say that Jesus' body ascended into heaven?
Similar to the question about Jesus descending into hell, the term is relating a mysterious spiritual experience. The reference to the ascension is in Acts 1: "After he had said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight." It's also a credal statement: "he ascended into heaven." It isn't entirely clear to me that the Acts 1 reference refers to Jesus' resurrected physical body. I wonder whether it even could have referred to that, since heaven is a spiritual "place" (for lack of a better word) and whether a physical body could exist there is doubtful to me. I do believe that the earliest disciples had an experience of Jesus being taken into heaven. What happened to Jesus resurrected flesh I don't know - and, as with many things about our faith, that will likely remain a mystery. But I see nothing in either scripture or the creeds that requires belief in the ascension of Jesus' actual resurrected flesh and blood, although I believe that when Christ returns, he will be in a physical form, and I believe that we also have some aspect of "fleshliness" to our eternal life. With the Apostles Creed, in other words, "I believe in the resurrection of the body."
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