9 “This, then, is how you should pray:” ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed
be your name,...
- Matthew 6:9, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House) 1984.
Dear Friends in Christ,
Today we continue with our summer sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer. Since a series assumes some degree of continuity, let’s start with a brief review...
We began with a general overview on prayer. We talked, for example, about the practice of prayer and the different forms our prayers can take. We used the acronym ACTS – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication – as the component parts of a well balanced prayer life.
But perhaps most importantly, we talked about the link between prayer and the Gospel message. Although all other world religions outside of Christianity also place an emphasis on prayer, the fact of the matter is that true heard and received prayer is a high privilege made possible only because of Jesus Christ – and reserved only for those who know Him as their Savior. Here’s the connection:
Jesus’ perfect life for us, sacrificial death as the substitute payment for our sins, and glorious resurrection from the dead three days later as proof His saving mission was accomplished, changed everything between God and man. The barrier of sin that divided the One True God from man was removed, and those who have embraced Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit enter into a new and right relationship with Him. Now we know God to be our loving Heavenly Father. And one of the great blessings and privileges of having God as our Father is being able to share with Him what is on our hearts and minds through prayer...
It is this Heavenly Father Jesus asks us to address in the prototype prayer He gave to us in the Lord’s Prayer. When you pray, says Jesus, begin with the understanding that we are talking with our good and gracious and ever-approachable Heavenly Father.
Now we come to the very first petition or request we are to make of God, which is:
HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME
We’d like to take up our discussion of the First Petition this morning by considering
A simple, repeated, prevailing principle in just about all the time management and leadership literature on the market is this: First things first. In other words, give highest priority to that which is most important. Then act on its importance by doing it before anything else...
Think of how this relates to the First Petition. Jesus tells us that when it comes to our life of prayer, put first things first. This is to be our first and foundational request: “Hallowed be your name,” which is to say: “Lord, may your name be kept holy.” So our initial concern as His children is that God’s Name is honored.
In one sense, that is already done. “God’s name is certainly holy by itself” reads the catechism explanation of this Petition. We could put it this way. We can’t make the sun bright because it already is. In the same way, we can’t make God’s name holy because it already is. No matter how man treats it or denies it or dismisses it, God’s name is and always will be holy. The holiness of God is an objective truth...
“...But we pray in this petition that we too may keep it holy.” So what we’re asking in the First Petition is that God’s name will be honored by us and through us.
Let’s back up. What exactly do we mean by God’s name? (It’s the same question we come up against in the Second Commandment, where we are forbidden to misuse the name of God.)
As we look to the Scriptures we will find that God’s name is more than just the alphabetical letters we use to refer to Him (God, Lord, etc.); God’s “name” also signifies everything He has revealed to us about Himself in His Word. There is a good example of this in the Book of Exodus. After God gave Moses the Ten Commandments for the second time we are told that He proclaimed to Moses His “name.” And what follows is a long description of who God is that takes up over 50 words in our English Bible.
The point – just as a person’s name calls to mind everything we know about that person, so God’s Name calls to mind everything we know about Him. And what we know about God He’s told us in His Word. So in a broad sense, God’s Name can also be understood to mean God’s Word.
That’s the sense Luther picks up on in his explanation of the First Petition when he says: “God’s name is kept holy when his Word is taught in its truth and purity, and we as children of God lead holy lives according to it.”
Let’s turn our attention to the phrase, “God’s’ name is kept holy when his Word is taught in its truth and purity.” What is that saying? It’s saying that correct teaching (doctrine) is important in the eyes of God. I believe we got an indication of how God feels about this in our first lesson today from the prophet Jeremiah. God was very upset (if we can use human terms) by those who misrepresented Him and who spread false teachings in His name.
This has some direct application to our lives as members of this church and this church body. Because we do take God’s Word seriously and do wish to carry out His Word in its “truth and purity,” we often find ourselves on opposite ends of the politically correct crowd. In a cultural setting that reclassifies sin for the sake of making it acceptable and then champions it under the banner of “diversity” or “tolerance,” confessional, conservative Lutheran Christians like ourselves are routinely considered to be intolerant or unloving or way out of the mainstream because we don’t automatically fall in line behind the world’s pronouncements. And I would imagine that just about all of us have experienced this personally in one way or another...
Which is all the more reason why we must pray, “Hallowed be your name, O Lord” and perhaps add to it: “and despite a permissive social climate, Lord, may Your Word continue to be taught in its truth and purity among us and throughout the world.”
So, “God’s name is kept holy when His Word is taught in its truth and purity, and we as children of God lead holy lives according to it.” In the remaining time we have left, let’s consider how we apply this Petition to ourselves personally. Earlier I mentioned that there is a process involved as we pray this and every other Petition as well. And the process begins with REPENTANCE...
In commenting on the First Petition in one of his expositions on the Lord’s Prayer, Martin Luther makes this very telling remark: “I know of no teaching in all the Scriptures that so mightily diminishes and destroys our life as does this petition.” He then goes on to substantiate his statement by saying we all live a life in which God’s name and honor is constantly maligned; we have other gods, and we want to be masters of our own lives...
The point he is making is that underneath the surface, the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer is first a confession of sin and a prayer of repentance. And as we personalize this petition and put the question to ourselves, “Have I always honored God’s name and Word by keeping it holy,” who of us could disagree with Luther’s assessment?
Although we may freely talk about the importance of God in our lives, the honest question Luther suggests we ask of ourselves is whether our actions match up with our confession. When it comes to my personal walk with Christ, is there a disconnect between what I say and what I do?
We must constantly be on guard of becoming “Cafeteria Christians” – you know, going through the Spiritual smorgasbord God offers us in His Word but selectively picking and choosing the things I want to obey or believe? The “Cafeteria Christian” thought process goes like this...
Sure God, I know what you say about moral purity, but dabbling in a little pornography here and there... or a little casual sex between consenting adults... or even living together before marriage (which is so acceptable in this day and age)... is really no big deal... But even if I don’t turn my life over to You in this area, hey, I’ll honor You by obeying You in this area over here...
Or, sure God, I know what you say about forgiveness and holding grudges and savoring the thought of personal revenge, but I’m not ready to do that yet... But, hey, I’ll honor You by obeying You in this area over here...
Or, sure God, I know what you say about the way in which we are to use our tongues and we’re not suppose to curse or swear or use vulgar speech or tell dirty jokes or gossip or tear people down, but come on, God, I’m not Pollyanna... Besides, I’ll honor You by obeying You in this area over here...
And so Cafeteria Christians deceive themselves and rationalize themselves into thinking that they honor God... But they don’t. No more than the husband who thinks he’s honoring his wife by remaining 85% faithful to her. And to the degree that we are Cafeteria Christians (and all of us know our own pet sins and personal weaknesses – and have probably gotten pretty good at explaining them away), we sin against the First Petition. Repenting of those sins of omission or commission is the first step in the process of personally applying the First Petition to our lives...
The second step is RESTORATION. From our failures in carrying out the First Petition we can flee back to the Address: “Our Father, in heaven.” God is our Father. How did He become our Father? Through the atoning work of His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died to take away all my sins. Which means all my sins against the First Petition I bring before the cross of Christ.
All those times I’ve dishonored God by my actions or my immorality or my language or my anger or my dishonesty or my hypocrisy – I bury all my sins in the empty tomb of Jesus Christ and they are gone forever. Because the “blood of Jesus Christ, [God’s] Son, purifies us from every sin.”
And that takes us to third and final step in the process. We move from REPENTANCE to RESTORATION to REJUVENATION. In other words, freed from the guilt of our sin, we are rejuvenated in our Christian walk and want only to honor God with our lives. “Hallowed be your name” ceases to be our accuser and now becomes our personal creed. To carry it out becomes our willing desire; our very reason for existence. And our personal hymn is the one we will sing shortly:
“Take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord to thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise”
“Take my love, my Lord, I pour, at thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself and I will be, ever, only, all for thee.”
The first, foundational Petition is this: “Hallowed be your name.”
What does this mean?
God’s name is certainly holy by itself, but we pray in this petition that we too may keep it holy.
How is God’s name kept holy?
God’s name is kept holy when His Word is taught in its truth and purity, and we as children of God lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But whoever teaches and lives contrary to God’s Word dishonors God’s name among us. Keep us from doing this, dear Father in heaven!
Lord, teach us to pray this way! Amen.