Epiphany Ucc

I mentioned in my weekly email to the congregation this week that I have a complicated relationship with the New Testament book of Hebrews, a snippet of which we heard a few seconds ago. Frankly, it’s letter and an argument that has never quite resonated with me, something I’ll try to explain in a few seconds. Nevertheless, a couple of thousands of years ago someone did think they were making a clever point about the nature of Christ’s death and the traditions of animal sacrifice used in Judaism and other religions, so much so that others likely attached the apostle Paul’s name to this work, hoping it would get more traction, more eyeballs on the parchment, so to speak – the more important the apostle, the more likely you would get your work read. But no serious Christian or secular scholars believe that Paul wrote it – the use of the Greek language is so different than the way it was used in the known writings of Paul that it’s rare to find anyone making the case he really wrote it, except in very conservati