Hallowed be your name

Introduction:

Last week we saw that calling God “our Father” implied at least the following: (1) We as Christians can know God intimately as Father or Daddy, (2) We pledge our allegiance to God rather than Caesar, (3) We commit our lives to a different cause, joining God’s revolution. That is, we sign-up as “soldiers” to a life of adventure, danger, and commitment, living into God’s story. Significantly, the prayer is followed by an implied response. Likewise, each of the six petitions of the Lord’s Prayer involves an act of God, and each implies participation on the part of the believer. That is, each involves the sovereignty of God and the freedom and responsibility of the human person.

This week, we are looking at the next part, which is the first petition, “hallowed be your name”. Here the intimacy Christians may have with their Heavenly Father is balanced also with insistence on reverence in this clause. Let’s read it together, and I invite you to notice the order of the petitions:

Commentary:

The prayer consists of six petitions, the first three focus on the preeminence of God while the last three focus on the personal needs in a community context.

The word Hallowed, means to “render sacred” or “revere as holy.”

This first petition is A Statement of praise and a commitment to hallow, or honor, God’s holy name.

What is God’s name: Kenneth Bailey - “Name” refers to one’s person, character, and authority. All that God stands for should be treated as holy and honored because of his utter perfection and goodness.

Put together - A Statement of praise and a commitment to hallow, or honor, God’s person, character, and authority i.e. all that God stands for.

1) Statement of praise (Worship)

How fitting it is for us as Christians to come to our Father with praise and adoration when we pray. It is especially noteworthy that according to the order of the prayer, praise comes well before any requests regarding our personal needs or even the forgiveness of our sins. It’s like Jesus is saying to us, bring your requests to your Father, but remember who he is…before you do so…remember the perfection and holiness of his person and character…It like Jesus is saying to us come and sit a while and adore your Father…

Only to sit and think of God, Oh what a joy it is!

To think the thought, to breath the Name, Earth has no higher bliss.

Frederick W. Faber – Old British Theologian

Jesus invites us to praise God for who he is, his attributes, his character and all that he stands for, especially as revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ. Praising God is an essential part of our Christian walk, not only because it is required from us biblically, but because he is worthy of our praise.

Sit and think of God:

He has no origin. While all created things necessarily originated somewhere at some time. God is self-existent. Aside from God, nothing is self-caused. Whatever God is, and all that God is, He is in Himself. He is outside of time. He has no past, he has no future…he simply is. He is infinite and knows no bounds. Whatever God is and all that God is, He is without limit. He does not change, he does not deteriorate nor change for better. He possesses perfect knowledge and therefore has no need to learn. God is wise in Himself, and all the shining wisdom of men or angels is but a reflection of that uncreated effulgence which streams from the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. God possesses what no creature can: an incomprehensible plenitude of power, a potency that is absolute. He is exalted far above the created universe, so far above that human thought cannot imagine it. God is everywhere here, close to everything, next to everyone.

He is, He cannot cease to be what He is, and being what He is, He cannot act out of character with Himself. He is at once faithful and immutable, all His words and acts remain faithful. God is kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly. God is His own self-existent principle of moral equity. He simply acts like Himself from within, uninfluenced by anything that is not Himself. He possesses an infinite and inexhaustible energy within his nature which disposes Him to be actively compassionate. His good pleasure inclines Him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. His love had no beginning; because He is eternal, His love can have no end; because He is infinite, it has no limit; because He is holy, it is the quintessence of all spotless purity; because He is immense, His love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea before which we kneel in joyful silence. We know nothing like His divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. He rules His entire creation, as all-knowing, all-powerful, and absolutely free.

Therefore, very fittingly, the first petition of the prayer Jesus gives us is, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name!

2) Statement of commitment

But, as much as “hallowed be your name” is an opportunity to adore God, it is also an opportunity to renew our commitment to honor God’s holy name with our lives. That is, God’s person, character, and authority i.e. all that God stands for. “What good is it if we honor God with our lips, but our hearts are far removed from him?” (Matthew 15:8-9). How futile will it be if we say hallowed be your name, but our lives shout the opposite. This clause is where the rubber hits the road. Perhaps someone could pray “our Father in heaven” and not mean what he says but praying “hallowed be your name” necessitates a look in the mirror.

By praying “our Father in Heaven” we pledge our allegiance to God rather than Caesar, we commit our lives to a different cause, joining God’s revolution. That is, we sign-up as “soldiers” to a life of adventure, danger, and commitment, living into God’s story. However, by praying hallowed be your name, we get to examine, assess, and renew that commitment.

How I need to renew that commitment - how I wish I can… I need to renew my commitment daily.

Christology - Jesus was always attentive to the leading and guiding of the Father. He looked to the Father for what to say and how to say it. He did what he knew was consistent with what the Father’s character and what he stands for. Jesus was obsessed with ensuring that the name of his Father was honored through his life.

John 5:17 - “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” John 5:19 “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. John 8:28 “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. John 10:32 “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

Oh, how I want to be more like Jesus Christ…But praise God, we can renew our commitment to honor his name…to live into God’s story every day…and we renew this by praying once more…Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name!

But there is another way in which this petition affords us the opportunity to imitate our older brother, to wear his clothes, to walk in his shoes, to weep with him in the garden, to share his suffering, and to know his victory…and this is in the area of Lament.

3) Call to lament

As we pray this prayer, “hallowed be your name”, we cannot help but be reminded of all the ways in which God’s name is not being hallowed in the world, in the global church, in our neighbourhoods and in our own personal lives. There is injustice, disfigurement and sin in the world, disunity in the global church, and personal shortcomings which do not honor God and all he stands for. This provides an occasion for lament… This calls us to a deep mourning or sorrow over the way things are compared to the way things ought to be.

Prayerful lament is not something foreign to the Bible, the largest genre of the Psalms is Lament (Lament – 59, Praise – 41, Hymn – 17).

Joyous People:

We have found the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45-46). We have rivers of living water flowing from within (John 7:38). We are loved by God and walk in fellowship with him (John 14:20-21). We have eternal life (John 3:16). Fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). Phil 4:4 - Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Nevertheless:

Our Father in heaven, may your name be honoured. That is, may you be worshipped by your whole creation; may the whole cosmos resound with your praise; may the whole world be freed from injustice, disfigurement, sin, and death, and may your name be hallowed. But, As we pray this prayer, “hallowed be your name”, we cannot help but be reminded of all the ways in which God’s name is not being hallowed in the world, church, and in our own personal lives. This should cause us to grieve the way things are…

It should cause a discontentment in our spirits…This world and all that is within it does not honour God’s person, character, and authority i.e. all that God stands for the way it ought.

We’ve got a choice, either we ignore the pain, vanity and ignorance of the world or we join Christ in lament… drawn into the messianic suffering of God in Christ (Bonhoeffer)… in a sense imitate our older brother…We weep as he wept over Jerusalem and his fellow Jews. We allow ourselves to go to the place where God can share his heart with us…

And in the weeping we cry out and say God…Let you name be hallowed in the world…in the church…in my neighbourhood and in my life…Show yourself holy!

OR, as Paul put it in Rom 8:26 – We pray by the Spirit through wordless groans. Sometimes, especially when it comes to prayer of lament…when our hearts are burdened…Words just seem so insufficient…so superficial…so light…

Personal story – Crying out for more of God.

As we pray Our Father, hallowed be your name…may we join the Father in his lament over the …..

Conclusion:

A Statement of praise and a commitment to hallow, or honor, God’s person, character, and authority i.e. all that God stands for.

· An opportunity to adore God,

· An opportunity to renew our commitment to honor God’s holy name with our lives,

· An opportunity to draw into the messianic suffering of God in Christ and lament over the lack of honor given to God in the world, church, our neighbourhoods and in our personal lives.