It starts with grace and peace

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

These are the words used by the Apostle Paul in the introduction of every letter he wrote that eventually was included in the collection we now call the Bible. No matter who the recipient of the letter might have been, and no matter the subject of the letter, the greeting was the same — grace and peace.

I and many other Christians often take exception to aspects of the theology that Paul developed and that became dominant in early Christian thinking. I argue with him quite often.

Arguing with Paul continues to be a vital part of the work of serious theologians. Paul was a man who loved to argue. His writings invited argument. Everywhere he went, he was eager to put his understanding of God and the Christian gospel to the test of open debate.

It is my own conviction that theology can never be stationary or fixed. Theology is always contextual and reflects the culture and life setting of the theologian. Theology should always invite debate. We read, honor and reflect on the theology of Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Barth and Tillich, but as we read we are aware of the dust and the mold that cover their work.

Paul left a standard for all of us who do theology. Theology should always be done in the context of grace and peace.

Paul was the earliest writer of material in the New Testament. His writings predate the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke by two to three decades and the gospel of John by four to five decades. His everyday language was Greek. He thought in Greek.

He wrote in Greek. In contrast, Jesus’ everyday language was Aramaic. If Jesus knew or spoke any Greek, it was of a pigeon variety. The language and cultural disparity between Jesus and Paul were huge. Paul was an elite. Jesus was low class and common.

It was grace and peace that bridged the gap between Paul and Jesus. It was grace and peace that bridged the gap between Paul and the multitudes that he attempted to convert. It is grace and peace that bridges all the varieties of Christian faith.

Grace is a word we all should understand better. Grace is the translation of the Greek word charis. We find it as the root of English words such as charm, charity and charismatic. In Paul’s vocabulary, it was the favor of God that could never be removed. No kind of misbehavior or wrongdoing could remove God’s kindness and favor. For Paul, it was a true gift of God that was to be emulated by those who embraced his lord, Jesus Christ. For Paul, God through Jesus Christ had suspended permanently the sin/judgment cycles of the past and had instituted charis, the grace of God.

Once the reader begins to grasp the meaning of charis, the significance of the word in the introduction of all the letters of Paul begins to be understood. Paul did not write about easy or trivial matters. The underlying message was that anything and everything could be discussed if charis was the context of the discussion.

The world has fallen prey to relationships that are based on threat of harm. Everywhere I turn people are attempting to resolve conflicts in the context of threat of harm rather than the context of charis.

This brings us to the second of our key words, peace. Our English word peace traces its roots to the Hebrew word shalom. It is a marvelous word that serves many purposes. In the context of Paul’s greetings, it expresses a desire for the recipients of his letters. It is a prayer. It is Paul’s hope for his audience. He wants them to be whole, complete, fulfilled, joyful, content, secure.

Christian churches are in a refreshingly new era. There is a fresh interest in Jesus of Nazareth as a rabbi who understood life. The Jesus message is not just that he died, but that he lived, taught and left us with a legacy of wisdom for the living of life. Paul, on the other hand, has been slipping into the background. I welcome this new emphasis on the life and teachings of Jesus. However, we dare not ignore Paul’s message of “grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

We live in a nation that knows little of grace and peace. We embrace the standard of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We punish rather than offer grace. We distort the nature of peace by thinking that it is found at the end of a barrel or in the explosion of a bomb. We look to the security and wellbeing of ourselves at the expense of those we perceive as enemies. We come to negotiating tables with threats of harm. Grace and peace, as I have described them, are seen as signs of weakness.

Life is fast-paced and a bit chaotic. It is in that context that Christians as a servant people ask what our role might be in the 21st century. I am urging that we offer the world an alternative context for living. The context that we offer is simple.

“Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.