This week we’ll be embarking on a series based on the Letter to the Hebrews. We’re not sure who the writer is, but we know this letter was circulated among a particular group of churches in the ancient world.

We also know that the letter doesn’t start with that group, or even this world. Instead we start with God, and a very cosmic God. Out in the realm of angels, Jesus is dwelling with God after finishing his work here among humanity.

It’s all very spacey, untethered by time, gravity, atmosphere, or much else.

It reminded me of the James Webb Space Telescope, launched last December and calibrated over the first half of this year. Recently NASA unveiled the first photos sent back by the JWST, to a flood of acclaim. Clearer! Brighter! Farther!

And the most wonder was created by the fact that the lightwaves reaching the JWST had been emitted billions of years ago, and only now had we put something in the way of those waves capable of sensing them. It’s like a Wayback Machine, giving us perspective on this wondrous bubble in which we have been placed.

That perspective might include a thought about the vastness of the universe, and our utter incapability of making sense of its scale. The people of Jesus’ time thought the universe they could see was similarly vast. They had no idea, of course, but really neither do we.

The wisdom of placing God in infinite space and time was dogmatic in earlier times. Today, it seems pragmatic.