Hallowed Be Thy Name

Its been a while since i have wanted make a post about a book i read; but never really got past thinking about it.

Have been doing my daily devotions on the book of Mathew; spent some time on mulling over and understanding the Lord's Prayer. 5 years past i had the privilege of interacting with and learning from NT Theologian Dieter Kemmler. A professor of Hermeneutics, he has written and taught widely - but his life's work has been the Lord's prayer. For me, it did come alive sitting through that series with him. The theological depth of what we ought to understand from it as a model for our lives and prayer is just magnificent. So i decided to share here my gleanings from the same in a series of posts; though not new in any way. If we were to truly follow this pattern how amazing our lives would be!

The Purpose of the Lord's Prayer

In both Mt. 6 and Lk. 11, the context of the Lord's Prayer is the disciples asking Jesus to teach them how to pray. From their Jewish mindset it made perfect sense; especially as they viewed God as the wholly other who could never be understood, dealt with, related to or known by a mere human. When they came from a culture where the common man could enter only the outer courts of the temple, only the selected tribe of priests could enter the inner courts and only the high priest could enter the holy of holies; that too once a year with rope tied to his waist to pull him back out, in case he died in God's presence - their question was very simply, 'teach us how we are to pray and speak our petitions to this supreme being we are so disconnected from and fearful of.' Jesus' answer was surprising indeed.

The Lord's Prayer

Matthew 6:9-16

New Living Translation (NLT)

⁹ Pray like this:

Our Father in heaven, 

  may your name be kept holy.
¹⁰ May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
    as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today the food we need,
¹² and forgive us our sins,
    as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
¹³ And don’t let us yield to temptation,
    but rescue us from the evil one.

For most of us, we would have learnt the Lord's Prayer as children while in Sunday School. Today, in most Christians persuasions we tend to repeat the Lord's Prayer verbatim on various occasions; while not truly understanding what we are asking or praying for. For ultimately this was not meant as just a creed; it was meant as a model of prayer for us to follow. More disturbing though is the fact that we tend to skip by the 1st line (vs. 9) as if it were just another thing to be recited as part of the creed; and subconsciously incline to focus on the following verses where we are asking things for ourselves. We couldn't be more wrong.

Our Father in Heaven

OUR: Jesus starts the prayer with the collective pronoun OUR. This is interesting because he could have very well said MY; since He was addressing His Father. But He starts with the word OUR. Goes to signify our acceptance of the fact that God is creator of all that exists & lives and is therefore OUR God. More interesting though is the word Father.

FATHER: The Jews always thought of God and referred to Him as the respectful other. They would therefore use words of majesty to speak about Him or address Him. The commonly used Greek word at that time by them for father in this context when you wanted to address God, was pater. It is the equivalent of us calling our earthly parent Sire or Sir or Pithashri (in Hindi). It assumes a distance which cannot be bridged. Further it assumes a respect which cannot be forgotten. Finally it signifies an unrelenting submission which would never allow for us to relate to our parent so as to truly connect with him at an emotional level and feel secure and comfortable with it. 

But in His prayer, Jesus didn't use the word pater. He instead used the Aramaic word Abba. No, not the band! :) This word also meant father, but it is the equivalent of calling our parent Papa or Dad. It denotes respect but also love - It shows endearment. It signifies the authority of the parent but also gives a feeling of warmth and security. Most importantly it feels connected! Jesus was teaching His disciples to get over their disconnectedness to God. More importantly He was teaching them that they could personally relate to Him. That they could love Him and relate to Him as one would with their loving earthly father. This was a revolutionary idea to the Jewish mindset as they never truly understood the Immanence of God.

IN HEAVEN: The bible tells us that in the heavens in God's throne and the earth is His footstool. (Mt. 5: 34, 35). Jesus is teaching the disciples to recognize the fact of who God is and where He sits. This is in contrast to the earlier Abba but does signify the Transcendence of God.

ALL PUT TOGETHER: We could therefore put together this first part of the sentence to understand that Jesus was teaching us understand and remind ourselves of God's Transcendence and Immanence every time we approach Him in prayer.

May Your Name be kept Holy

HOLY / HALLOWED: The Greek verb been used here is hagiazo. It signifies a range of meanings so as to say venerate, declare sacred, adore, holy, consecrated, sanctified. It goes to denote the wholly other and how it ought to be treated. It goes to signify the grit and passion one ought to have in order to maintain the sanctity of the venerated one or holy one.

A brilliant example that comes to mind is the followers of Islam. Though i do not in any way agree to their actions and the way they choose to deal with situations; i do admire their passionate grit to keep up the sanctity of their religion, faith and prophet. Even in the light of the recent uprisings over the video - Innocence of Muslims we can see that they are willing do anything to protect what they see as sacred, holy and hallowed. If the followers of Islam who probably are never able to relate to their creator at a personal level have such kind of a passion to upkeep what they consider Holy; it is sad that we as Christians pale out in comparison. After all, we are the people of the light; we share a personal relationship with God and are able to address and approach Him directly. We need to ask ourselves the question do we truly consider God Holy and treat Him with all the respect He is due? Or has our focus on the Immanence of God driven us to the other extreme of disregarding Him? It is indeed food for thought.

YOUR NAME: It is interesting to note that Jesus didn't pray May My Name be kept Holy! He instead said May Your Name be kept Holy. Whom was He referring to? He was referring to God's Name - the great I AM. Every single time that the Lord God refers to Himself, He does so by calling Himself God Almighty (Ex. 6:3), I AM (Ex. 3:14), Holy (Isa. 57:15). In Ezekiel 36 He goes so much to say that He scattered His people of Israel because they disregarded His Holy Name. The Bible teaches us that our God is a jealous God (Ex. 20: 4, 5). What is He jealous about? 2 things really - The Holiness of His name and the fate of humanity. For the former He would even punish His dearest Israel in love and for the latter He gave up His Son on the cross that you and me might enjoy His presence for the everlasting. Jesus is referring to the same I AM, whose name is so Holy that we were never considered worthy of mentioning it. Jesus is in essence teaching us to give the same reverence to God's Holy name.

OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN, MAY YOUR NAME BE KEPT HOLY: By making this statement and asking us to pray likewise, Jesus is asking us to respect and praise and worship due to God. But more importantly when we pray likewise we are asking that His name be kept Holy through all the earth. Wow! We are making a missionary prayer here. We are praying for all humankind to worship Him. We are praying for God to make Himself known in all the earth. We are praying for people to know Him and Him alone as God. We are praying for all who do not know Him and that we would together as His creation worship Him for who He is - God above all! The implications of this statement are profound. The Lord Himself taught us to start our prayers by recognizing who He is and asking that He makes Himself known to all. The question is how?

The answer lies in us; we can ensure that His Name be kept Holy by always keeping Him first and above all:

1. In Our Hearts: What is the first thing you do in the morning? Watch the news, read the newspaper, check our phones for messages from our boy / girl friend, check facebook for updates from friends / family? Or do we choose to acknowledge Him for a good night's rest, His unconditional love for you; as a result of which you only want to spend time with Him (Quiet Time). Is He the first thought in the morning and the last thought you retire to bed with? Do we feel His presence all day with us so real that we are constantly communicating with Him? Do our innermost thoughts truly give Him all glory? Is He the first thought on our minds in our deepest, darkest moments?
2. In Our Lives: Does every word and deed of ours truly give Him all glory? Through everything we do, are we truly giving our best that glory be brought to His Name? Whether it be our studies or work, our relationships or our own private lives; are we doing our best for His Holy name sake?
3. In the World: We all have friends / acquaintances of other faiths who have invited us over to celebrate their festivals. How many times have we truly chosen to represent the true and living God to them and called them to be part of Church, or some program where they could have a chance to meet with Him? Have we truly been praying for such people in our sphere of influence that they too might find God? Have we been shy of using our gifts and talents for His glory?

The implications of the first line of the Lord's prayer are astounding! Jesus essentially taught us to pray to be His ambassadors in this world. Are we up for the challenge? Are we truly prepared to say OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN, MAY YOUR NAME BE KEPT HOLY???