Help Us Honor God’s Name as Holy
Quick survey: by show of hands, how many of you know what it means to “hallow” something? Or maybe, better yet, by show of hands, how many of you have used the word “hallow” outside of the Lord’s Prayer?
If you have never used that word and don’t know how to define it, don’t feel bad. That’s literally why we’re here today. More than that, you’re not alone. Smarter people than you have screwed up their faces at the use of the word “hallow” in this prayer for centuries. Consider this quote from Martin Luther about this petition almost exactly 500 years ago:
These words are somewhat obscure and not really according to common usage.[1]
This terminology was antiquated 500 years ago! And yet we still use it, in part, because it is that engrained in Christian tradition, but mostly because there doesn’t exist another word in the English language that quite captures the meaning of “hallow.” To spare any more confusion and to square this away once and for all, here is the definition for hallow:
to regard as holy; to treat as supremely special.
That’s what God wants us to do with his name – he wants us to regard it as holy and to treat it as supremely special. In fact, this is so important to God that he made it the first petition – the first request – we are to include in our daily prayers. Now, it’s going to take a little bit for us to understand why this is so important to God (and therefore also why it should be important for us), so let’s take it one step at a time.
Maybe this is an obvious question, but it’s a good place to start: What is God’s name?
Moses actually had the same question. When God sent him to Egypt to free the Israelites from slavery, Moses had his doubts and fears. He asked God:
“Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”[2]
This is one of the clearest answers God ever gives to our first major question today: What is God’s name? It’s I am, or I am who I am. That’s a strange name, isn’t it? You don’t hear that called out on the playground at school very often, do you? It may be strange, but it can actually tell us quite a bit about God.
Why do you suppose God calls himself I am, and not I was or I will be? We can actually see a bit of God’s eternal nature in his name. No matter when you talk to or about God he always is. He is in the constant, eternal state of being in the present. Now, that may make your brain hurt a little just thinking about it, but here’s a helpful way I’ve found to think about it: God is not a “has been” and God is not a “not yet.” He is, and he always is.
What difference does that make to you – to know that God is not a has been or a not yet – especially as you think about praying to him? There is never a time when you have gotten to God too early or too late. It is not as if his power or influence has dried up over the centuries. It is not as if he is not ready yet to help you, as if he has to get his ducks in a row before he can be of any use to you. He is – and always is – ready, willing, able to hear and help you.
There’s a whole lot more that I could say about this name for God, but there are so many other names that also tell us so much about God. Allow me just one more. This one also comes from the book of Exodus as God is encouraging Moses, this time a bit later in life. God came down to Moses in a cloud and proclaimed his name:
The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.[3]
You could say that this whole paragraph is God’s name. What do we learn about God from this name?
In the first half he just piles on expressions of love and patience and kindness, gentleness, forgiveness, grace, mercy. In the first half, we see a picture of a God who can endure and withstand all the many ways that we abuse and misuse him. We see a God of unlimited love.
But in case all those good and lovely expressions of patience and forgiveness were to leave you with the impression that God is a sap or a pushover, he adds the second sentence about punishing the guilty. In his grace, God can withstand and endure all kinds of sin, but he still has a very strong sense of justice – not leaving the guilty unpunished.
God warns us in the Second Commandment not to misuse his name. In fact, he forbids it:
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.[4]
Really, it’s the same thing that we pray for in the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: hallowed be thy name. It’s just that one is stated positively and the other is stated negatively. What does it tell you that the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer and Second Commandment are both focused on the proper use of the name of God? It means that God’s name is very important to him, and he wants it to be very important to you too.
You have a special connection with God’s name. Did you know that? We heard this last week:
When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.[5]
God adopted you into his family. You are his dear child and he is your Father in heaven. What often happens to a child’s name when they’re adopted into their forever family? Their name changes. They take on the name of their adoptive family. That’s what happened to you when you became a Christian, when you were baptized. That’s what Jesus commands his followers to do:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.[6]
You were baptized into the name of God and now, as a Christian, you carry that name with you wherever you go. So, when God makes these commands and instructs you to pray a certain way about his name, it doesn’t just affect him; it applies to you and everything you say and do.
It kind of reminds me of my first day of high school. Mrs. Burgess was calling roll in English class. “Amber Margraff?” “Here!” “Elizabeth Metcalf?” “Here!” Then she came to my name, paused, and practically growled, “Metzger…” So, I sheepishly raised my hand and said, “Here?”
This was the first time in my life that I had ever met this woman, and before she sees me do anything, hears me say anything, before she knows anything about me as my own individual human being, you could hear in her voice that she already disliked me. She had had my two older brothers in class before me, and let’s just say that they didn’t leave the best impression with her. So the instant she saw the name “Metzger,” her mood turned sour, and she considered me guilty by association.
That is the awesome privilege but also terrifying responsibility that you have as a Christian, as a person who carries God’s name with you wherever you go. God does not walk the streets of St. Albert, but you do. God does not have a social media profile or a Twitter handle, but you do. And here’s the kicker, for many people, more and more, the first impression they have of God is you, a Christian, who carries his name with you wherever you go.
What do you suppose people think about God when they look at what you, a Christian, post or share on social media? What impression does this world have of God when they overhear the conversation of one of his followers in the mall or at a softball game or in a bar?
Sadly, it’s all too easy not to hallow God’s name. We don’t always regard it as something that is holy or treat it as something supremely special. We use it to punctuate text messages or to accentuate the punchline of a joke. We forget that the world is watching and that people are drawing conclusions about God based on what we say and do all the time, not just on Sunday mornings or when we’re at our best, but also on Friday nights and when we’re at our worst.
I think that Jesus teaches us to pray this petition first, because it’s one of the first things we fail and forget to do, but also because it is that important. God is not just worried about you dragging his name through the mud because he has a vain attachment to his reputation. He cares about it, because eternal salvation depends on it.
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.[7]
If the world around you recognizes you as a Christian and they don’t like what they see, then they may walk away from the only name under heaven given to mankind by which they can possibly be saved, not because God is unappealing but because you are. We have a responsibility to represent our God to this world. Do you embody what God tells us about himself in his name?
The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.[8]
Of course not. None of us do. But there is one who did. And I think you know his name.
Jesus was compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. You can see those qualities clearly throughout Jesus’ life, but maybe most poignantly in his last 24 hours. He was wrongfully accused, brutally abused, falsely convicted of crimes he did not commit and sentenced to death on a cross. And yet he did not utter a word of protest or lift a finger to fight back. He did not cuss out his murderers or curse the followers who abandoned him to suffer his fate alone. He prayed for them and died for them, because he had compassion on them and was faithful to them.
Jesus maintained love to thousands of sinners who sinned against him and he forgave wickedness, rebellion and sin at great cost to himself. He was able to withstand and put up with a mountain of disrespect and disobedience, and still manage not to be a sap or a pushover. He preserved justice, not by ignoring our sin, but by taking our punishment on himself, so that we could be forgiven. He lived up to his name.
Do you know what Jesus’ name means? “He saves.” That’s exactly what he did for you. He was punished, so that you could be set free from all your guilt and shame. He was crucified, so that you could live in his forgiveness and love forever. He even gave you his name – both to call on and to be called by.
We have this promise through the prophet Joel (which was later repeated by both Peter[9] and Paul[10]):
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.[11]
That’s true for you. Even when your words and actions have made it clear that you don’t always regard God’s name as holy or treat as something special, even when the world looks at you and doesn’t see a perfect reflection of your Father in heaven, there’s forgiveness for you in his Son Jesus, whose name literally means your salvation. You can call on the name of your Lord in prayer and be assured of your salvation.
But that’s also true for everyone else too, especially for those who are blessed to learn about their God through you. I called it a terrifying responsibility earlier, i.e. to carry the name of Christ with us wherever we go, but it’s also an awesome privilege – to be the way in which God makes his name known for the salvation of the world around us. That’s why the first thing Jesus teaches us to pray is: hallowed be thy name.
The only question that remains is, how do we do that? How do we ensure that we treat God’s name as something supremely special? Consider a pair of passages:
Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done.[12]
If sincerely feel like God’s name is something supremely special, what are we going to do with it? We’re going to use it! We’re going to tell other people about him. We’re going to shout from the rooftops the good news of forgiveness and eternal life through his Son Jesus, our Saviour.
Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.[13]
What do you think Jesus means when he says, “Let your light shine”? He’s talking about the way you live your life. He’s encouraging you to behave in a such a way that people can’t help but see even just a glimmer of the goodness and grace of God. Maybe that means being polite and helpful – holding the door open for someone or helping them bring their groceries in. Maybe that means being kind and compassionate – going out of your way to find people who need help and making a donation or offering to volunteer.
But this is the important question: Why? Not so that your reputation can be improved. So that you can give glory to God in everything you say and do. So that through you, others may be drawn to him. So that through you and what you do, they may believe in him and receive salvation by calling on his name.
“Hallow.” It may be “somewhat obscure and not really according to common usage,” but it’s supremely special and worthy of our first petition. Hallowed be his name. Amen.
[1] Luther’s Large Catechism, p.84
[2] Exodus 3:13,14
[3] Exodus 34:6,7
[4] Exodus 20:7
[5] Galatians 4:4,5
[6] Matthew 28:19
[7] Acts 4:12
[8] Exodus 34:6,7
[9] Acts 2:21
[10] Romans 10:13
[11] Joel 2:32
[12] 1 Chronicles 16:8
[13] Matthew 5:16