May Your Name Be Sanctified

‘We’re In Jeopardy’

On an episode of Jeopardy, a question was asked about a religious text, something that is done from time to time, just like there are questions about Shakespeare and other literary works. The text in question? The Bible, the New Testament to be specific. The book was Matthew.

Here is the answer to which the contestants were to provide the question: “Matthew 6:9” says, ‘Our Father, which art in heaven,’ This ‘be thy name.’

I bet we all know the answer to that one, at least I would hope so unless you have just started coming to church recently.

Because, of course the answer is “hallowed.” But the problem was that none of the three contestants had gotten the answer right! The returning champion, a five-time winner and computer genius didn’t get it right, a non-profit administrator didn’t get it right, and a physics grad student botched the question to.”

Normally, a missed question isn’t cause for media attention, but this one was different. This one seemed to strike a nerve. Why is that do you think?

In my opinion, part of the reason that this missed question was a cause for concern was that it revealed something we all know to be the case: Church attendance and biblical literacy are on the decline. People just aren’t that familiar with the biblical text anymore. If you don’t read it yourself, then the only place you’ll usually encounter the Bible is in church, right? I think that makes sense.

But I also think there is something else going on, something echoed by a few of the authors I read, including the author of the article from which I got my Jeopardy illustration.

A ‘Hallowed Issue’

And that something else going on is, at its core, an uneasiness with the language of “hallowed be thy name.” We say it, we repeat it, we even mean what we’re saying.

But do we know what it is that we are really saying? Do we know what we’re asking for when we ask God to hallow his name?

Part of the problem is, of course, language. The majority of us, myself included, learned the Lord’s Prayer in the King James version. I think in many instances, particularly in the poetry, prophecy, and prayer sections, that the KJV is beautiful and poetic. But we need to keep in mind that it was translated first in 1611—that’s over four hundred years ago.

Languages move, change, and shift at an incredibly fast pace. When the KJV was put to paper it was current. It was, for the most part, written in the language of the people, because part of the intent of its authors was to have the Bible be read by the average person, at least assuming they could read, which was not guaranteed in that age. But even then, most people went to services so they’d at least hear it. And because languages move, there will always be a need for new translations of the Bible as English and other languages continue to grow and develop. God’s word never changes, but the way it is expressed must meet the hearts and minds of its hearers.

The great church father Augustine of Hippo wrote that:

The pure prayer that ascends from a faithful heart will be like incense rising from a hallowed altar.

Augustine of Hippo

Does this quote help us in our understanding of what the word ‘hallow’ means? In actuality, I’m not sure that it does. The first part of the quote is relatively clear, right? The pure prayer, that is, prayer that is devoid of self-interest or religious formalism, or trying to manipulate God…that type of prayer goes up—ascends—from a faithful heart (a heart that is devoted to God alone)—that type of prayer will be like incense rising from an altar—a hallowed altar.

And here we have a problem again. Here is the hallowed problem. What does it mean?

A Helpful Definition

Like I said, what we have here is a problem of language. We just don’t use ‘hallowed’ in our everyday language. In the past, when King James English thrived, many people simply knew what it meant. Not so much today. Another thing to know is that all Bibles in English have to be translated from the original languages, Hebrew for the OT, and Greek for the NT. And it’s not always possible to translate word-for-word from one language to the next. Greek has a lot more flexibility in translation than English does and a a Greek word packs a lot more information in it than a corresponding word does in English.

And just so with the phrase we translate ‘hallowed be thy name.’ The verbal form underneath the hood in the Greek text is something like a request. We are making a petition—we’re praying to God—that the name be hallowed.

So, we’re requesting something, just like we’re going to ask for God’s Kingdom to come, God’s will to be done, etc. But that still doesn’t move us on to an understanding of what ‘hallowed’ means other than we’re asking for it to be done, so it’s an active word.

So, as the name of the sermon suggests, and following noted New Testament scholar Nijay Gupta, I’m proposing a literal translation of “May your name be sanctified.” With the use of the word “sanctified,” we’re coming closer to arriving at a definition of ‘hallowed. When you and I talk about the word ‘sanctified,’ we talk about being made more holy, more like God in some way.

And now, at last, we’ve started to move beyond confusion and more to a concrete definition of ‘hallowed.’ When we pray ‘hallowed be thy name,’ we’re asking that God make his name holy.

But what does it mean to be holy, anyway? And what is all this business about God’s name too?

Hopefully, as we talk about our Scriptures for the day, those things will start to come into focus.

The Burning Bush: Exodus 3:1-17

In our passage from Exodus we see the familiar story of Moses at the Burning Bush. I’d like you to notice a few things here:

Holy Ground

God of the Fathers

God Cares for God’s People

God’s character is found in God’s Name

I am who I am or I will be who I will be

God’s personal name

knowable and unknowable

God’s character is motivated by justice and righteousness

So, from this passage we see that God’s name describes God’s character. God is motivated by justice, by righteousness, by hearing the cries of God’s people and moving to make things right. Moreover, God’s name is defined as existence itself. God simply is, and the name of Yahweh reflects something of that knowable and unknowable dichotomy that always is found present when we approach God.

Isaiah 6:1-7 & Revelation 4:8

The next Scriptures I’d like to look at together, because they pick up on a similar setting. Isaiah’s prophetic calling and the heavenly throne room setting of Revelation 4 are part of a tradition in the Bible known as the ‘throne room vision.’ Part of what it means to be a prophet in the Bible is that you have had access to the heavenly temple in which God lives. You have been called out of your ordinary workaday lives and have had a vision of the King of Glory, Yahweh in his throne room.

Isaiah receives his vision unexpectedly. And he feels as if he is undone.

God’s glory filled the Temple

Seraphim

Burning Ones

Covering their faces

The Trishagion “Holy, Holy, Holy!”

A constant reminder in the presence of God of whom we are dealing with

The whole earth is full of his glory

Glory is God’s radiant splendor, like holiness, his “God-ness”

Isaiah feels that he is undone

He is not holy

He is unclean/not holy

His people are unclean/not holy

Atonement has been made for sin, a change in status is now obtained

Isaiah becomes holy

Being in the presence of God can make one holy

Being cleansed from sin can make one holy

Holiness is, in part, a change of status

Revelation is very much like Isaiah, except even more wild and wonderful. Here, instead of the Seraphim we see the Four Living Creatures, the ones with all those odd faces. But they shout the same thing to John, who like Isaiah, has been taken in to the heavenly throne room and given visions of the King of Glory, but this time John sees the Lamb on the throne and the Ancient of Days together, a new vision of who God is, not just One, but a plurality.

A Levitical Reminder

And mention of Jesus brings us to the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’ citation of Leviticus 19:2.

We hopefully know the Sermon on the Mount pretty well. We looked at it in depth over a few months earlier this year so I’m not going to camp out too long here. But I am going to hone in on what Jesus is saying in Matthew 5:48.

Matthew reports that Jesus says this: “Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

That’s sort of a head-scratcher, don’t you think? How in the world can you and I, sinful as we are and prone to error, ever be perfect?

And here again we have a problem of language. Again a translation issue from Greek to English.

Because Jesus is hear quoting from Leviticus, he’s quoting a section from the holiness code. There’s that word again, ‘holiness.’

Leviticus says this: Leviticus 19:2

Leviticus 19:2 NASB 2020

“Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

Notice that this is not a request like what we are praying in the Lord’s Prayer. This is simply a statement: You shall be holy—another way to translate that is--”you will be holy.”

Holiness is a status conveyed because of one’s category of being

God is holy because God is God

We are holy because we are God’s

Israel will be holy because God had chosen her

We are holy because we are in relationship to God

Holiness Defined

Holiness is a change in status and category

Holiness reserves us from common use to a special role

Israel was to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation

1 Peter tells us that we are now given that role in the church

Sanctifying the Name

That brings me back to our Jeopardy answer. Hallowing the name. How do we do it? Well, first, remember that it’s better translated, “may your name be sanctified.” In other words, we pray not that God himself would be made holy. Or merely that God’s name, the manifestation of God’s character, would be holy. No, God is already holy because of God’s own status, his very God-ness makes him holy.

What we are praying for then is that God’s name would be regarded as holy. We pray that not just us, not just God, but that all people would give reverence and honor to God. We pray for the day when all people would turn to God, be God’s image bearing people as they were created to be, and spread God’s glory as far as the waters cover the sea.

The day is coming when Phil 2 (every knee will bow) and all tongues confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Communion helps us prepare for that experience

We partake of Grace until Christ comes again.