THE LORD'S PRAYER;  REVERENCE;  HALLOWED BE THY NAME

REVERENCE

Father... Hallowed be your name

You have all heard that the Hebrew word for father is Abba, and that Abba was the name that the littlest child used to babble and is just like our infants and children saying “Daddy”. Well, it may be true that the youngest child did call their male parent “Abba” but to make the transition to “daddy” brings, or has brought, a grave misunderstanding of what that meant to the child of ancient times. One author I read years ago had an article called. “Abba is not daddy” Consider this. Yes the child called his parent “Abba”. But so did the oldest adult call his father “Abba”. The image preachers try to convey when they launch into the “abba/daddy” message is that God is so tender, so sweet and cuddly that you know you can get just about anything from him. Rather than the Father of the Old Testament who had the authority and necessity to have his rebellious children stoned to death when they broke the law, we picture more the grandfather who spoils the sweet little innocent because she flashes her smile and her cute dimples and his heart melts, and he gives her anything her heart desires, or she throws a tantrum and to keep peace grampa (or whoever she is most easily manipulating) gives in. This is NOT the Father to whom we are coming. This Father is the one whose NAME is “hallowed”, sanctified, “set apart” Holy, and Awesome. His name caused nations to tremble. To take his name and misuse it, to use it in “vain” was to bring judgment.

How do we “hallow” his name today? Or perhaps easier to answer how do we “unhallow” or profane his name today? It is too easy to quickly talk about the world's abuse of God's name, and think of “swearing” and profanity. But what of the ways in which we make reference to God, or think we can manipulate him, or make promises or undertake projects “in the name of God”, that in fact must diminish his character in the eyes of the world? Is this what Jesus meant? In light of the Pharisaical practices of his day, was he asking the disciples to raise their behaviour and therefore the reverence of God's name to new heights, as they put their actions where their mouth (or profession) was? Is not the phrase, the prayer “Your name be hallowed” an acknowledgment to Hallow his name before the World; To let our lights shine; To DO his will; to reveal his kingdom?

In the Old Testament you find that the condemnation was not that pagans swore “in God's name” or even that they did abominable things and “profaned” God's name. It was when the Israelites did these things that they profaned God's name. In Ezekiel 36 we get the picture that the Israelites by their unholy deeds had profaned God's name while in their own land and then when God sent them out of the land ;”They profaned my holy name when they said to them 'These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land'. But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.” (Profane means beyond the fence or threshold... of the temple) Therefore only those connected to the temple could be "beyond it" in the sense that if it wasn't your temple you weren't expected to know anything about the "holiness" expected of you.)

We understand, or should, that when we talk about God's name we talk about his Character. Therefore, when we do anything in keeping with God's character we are hallowing his name. When we do anything out of his character we are profaning his name. And since pagans cannot represent God or his Character, it is ONLY believers who can proclaim His name, either to sanctify or hallow it, or to profane it.

Malachi 1:11 says “From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles... for my name shall be great among the heathen... But you have profaned it.

This naturally flows into the next phrase in the “Lord's Prayer” and all of it fits within the framework of the sermon on the mount. Really, this prayer is a key or summary of the Sermon, and we should examine it in light of chapters 5, 6 and 7.

Again, we may learn more about what it means to Hallow God's name by looking at the way professing believers profane it. There is of course the simple way of “taking his name in vain” and by that we usually mean “swearing”. But what of “minced oaths”? Then there is the “in vain” as in empty and without thought, tagging “in Jesus Name” on to the end of prayers that are selfish and arrogant. But what about when we take up causes “in the name of God” that are uncharitable and sectarian? OR when we profess to be Christians to the world, but by our neglect of the poor or needy, when we fail to “do justice” or walk humbly with our God, we misrepresent the heart and mind of God? Jesus has shown us in the rest of the sermon on the mount, and when he talks about Kingdom Concepts, what “hallowing the name” means. And he addresses it in the next phrases. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.”” For me to pray, “Your name be hallowed” it means I have to consciously be seeking how I might honour God's character and portray it correctly, to a world who needs to see a different kind of God than he usually sees in those wearing the “christian” name tag. We can't “hallow his name” before the world, if we haven't made Him Holy in our life. Would a right concept of His holiness, (and our sinfulness) keep us from the friendship (love) of the world and the things of the world, and give us His Love for the people of the world? Wouldn't praying “Hallowed by your name” be the same as saying, “May this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus”?