Grace and peace to you. Galatians 1.

Today we begin reading a new letter of the New Testament. Unlike Hebrews we know both the author, Paul, and the recipients, the churches in Galatia. In this first chapter we learn more about Paul's history, and you may want to go back and review the events of Acts 9. We're also introduced, almost immediately to the reason Paul is writing this letter. Some group is messing with the heads of the Galatians, teaching a mistaken version of the good news, so mistaken it's not the good news at all.

Paul will continue to develop this idea throughout the letter, describing exactly what the error is in the message of these false teachers. (And you've heard it before.) First, though, he describes how egregious this error is -- even if the angels brought this false message to the Galatians it would still be false. Even if Paul himself brought this message, he should be condemned. Whoa.

Paul then has to establish his credentials. Evidently those bringing the message were claiming the authority of the Jerusalem church, and so Paul shows that he received his teaching directly from Christ, an authority equal to the Jerusalem church. And that's pretty much what we learn in this first chapter.

I'd like to focus on Paul's greeting this morning -- "Grace and peace to you." This is not unique to this letter, and is one of the distinctives of Paul's letters. Grace is usually defined as unmerited favor, or a gift or blessing. Paul takes that word of general usage and infuses it with the powerful theology of God's gift of salvation through His Son, in contrast with anything we can do to earn salvation. But in its simplest form, it's a greeting of blessing -- may God be kind to you.

While Paul wrote in Greek, the word peace is better understood from the Hebrew form - salem; or as we hear today, shalom. This would be a standard greeting between the Jews of the day -- peace to you, shalom. It's still a greeting today in the middle east, including the Arabic version, Assalamu 'Alaikum. Thus Paul's greeting to the Galatians could be roughly translated as "May God the Father and Jesus the Son be kind to you, and give you peace."

It's a great way to start a letter, isn't it? It would be probably be weird to greet each other this weekend with the words, "grace and peace to you," but don't be surprised if you hear it.