a new greeting

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4

This letter begins in almost the exact same way that the previous letter does, right down to an interesting way of addressing the church. Normally Paul emphasizes that the church or the people he is writing to belong to God (for example: "to the church of God in Corinth" or "to God's holy people in Philippi"). Here, as in 1 Thessalonians, Paul addresses the letter to "the church of the Thessalonians in God..." I am not sure what the significance of this change is, if any, but it is interesting to me that both letters to the Thessalonians contain this exact same address.
Paul greets his audience in his usual way: grace and peace. I've learned, in preparing for my sermon this week, that "peace" calls to mind the ancient Hebrew greeting of "shalom" which is more than the absence of conflict but the welfare and prosperity of the whole person and nation. Shalom is a blessing that calls on God to restore things in this world to the way they originally worked in the Garden of Eden. Paul is reminding us that this is still the hope of the disciple of Christ - that one day, through the finished work of Christ, all of creation will be restored to peace and that right now in our own soul, spirit and body we can experience that peace in our relationship with God, within ourselves, in our relationships with each other and in every circumstance of life.
I also learned that the Greek word for grace is very close to the traditional Roman greeting of "Hail" or "Rejoice" (also translated "greetings" because it was used so often as a greeting). Paul takes the traditional Hebrew and Roman greetings and gives them a new look, a new meaning: grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This has made me think about the words that I use to greet people. It is usually something along the lines of "How's it goin?" or "How are you?" The problem is that what is supposed to show concern and care for the other person has become an empty phrase because I use it so much. I think the same thing happened with Paul's greeting - we read it so often in his letters and recognize as the preamble to what he really wants to say so we glide right over it with out pausing to consider what he means by it. Grace and peace are hugely important to Paul - they are almost always his first prayer for the readers of his letter and, at least in the letters to the Thessalonians, they are his last prayer as well: "Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace... the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all."