one thing i never see the same
when you're around
Today we get to the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “hallowed be your name.” Or, “hallowed be thy name,” depending on how you pray it. But either way, it’s just four little words.
Four little words that are easy to say, but hard to understand.
For a whole multitude of reasons, too.
Reflecting on these words, “hallowed be your name,” Luther remarks in the Large Catechism that this an odd phrase. He says it’s not a natural way to speak in German. Well, it’s not a natural way to speak in English, either! Is it?
As it turns out, though, this little phrase, “hallowed be your name,” encapsulates the entire Lord’s Prayer! In fact, it even sums up the whole of the Christian life!
And here’s a wild thing; just making this supplication helps bring it to pass, too!
Now, I know that’s a little ambiguous. But for now, I want to leave it at that.
In the meantime, though, let’s have a short grammar lesson. The word “hallowed” is simply the passive form of the verb “sanctify” or make holy. So, when you pray, “hallowed be your name,” you’re asking God to consecrate God’s own name.
In essence, you’re saying, “God, you make your own name holy.”
And while this may seem insignificant, pay attention. Pay attention because this little distinction is not so little. In fact, it’s where true faith lives and dies.
This line, “hallowed be your name,” is not one that comes naturally to us. But not just because it’s not how we talk. It doesn’t come naturally to us because it’s not how we live. It’s not how we live.
When push comes to shove, we always think we’re the ones who have to keep God’s holiness intact.
And if you’re not so sure, next time you find yourself getting worked up, stop. Stop and take a moment to ask why you’re getting so worked up.
…If I had to guess, I’d be willing to bet it’s because there’s some outcome you’re sure you know just how it ought to come to pass. But, life isn’t turning out that way.
In other words, you’re fired up because you think it’s your job to make everything come out in such a way that God’s holiness, or at least your conception of it, isn’t compromised…
But, in these four little words, “hallowed be your name,” Jesus tells you to pray against that impulse.
It’s like that great Pixar movie, Finding Nemo. Remember that one? Nemo, the little clownfish who gets separated from his father, Marlin. And the subsequent tale of their harrowing reunion.
It starts when we learn that Nemo’s mom was eaten by a shark. The way Marlin copes with this tragedy is to become terribly over-protective of Nemo. Which, of course, Nemo rebels against.
It’s this asserting of himself that lands Nemo in a fishermen’s net and on his way to an aquarium.
Desperate to rescue his boy, Marlin throws himself into many perilous situations. At one pivotal point in the movie Marlin and his companion, Dory, are swallowed by a whale.
Marlin and Dory survive, at first, by clinging to the whale’s tongue. But, as gravity pulls everything toward the back whale’s throat, Marlin and Dory are only left with small pockets of water to breathe in.
At this treacherous moment, Dory, the seemingly out of touch royal blue tang, tells Marlin not to worry, that she speaks whale.
Then, after making some ridiculous sounds, she proceeds to tell Marlin the whale says they should swim to the back of his throat.
Swim to the back of the whale’s throat?!? Of course, Marlin won’t listen to that! To his way of thinking, that’s precisely the wrong thing to do—a sure way to wind up a whale’s lunch.
Dory, though, insists it’s time to let go and that everything will be alright. Refusing to listen, Marlin hangs on. Eventually, though, all the water recedes. Holding his breath, Marlin tries to hold onto the whale’s tongue. But finally, he loses his grip and falls to the back of the whale’s throat.
Before he knows it, there’s a giant gush of water, and he and Dory are expelled through the whale’s blowhole, to freedom!
Shortly thereafter, Marlin and Nemo are reunited, too.
…When you pray, “hallowed be your name,” you are effectively praying the same thing would happen to you! That you would lose our grip, and have to let go!
…We never volunteer to give up our control. Do we?
We don’t let go until we lose our grip. In the Lord’s Prayer, we don’t just use the passive form of the verb “to sanctify,” we also pray that we would be made passive ourselves!
Which is not easy. Is it?
But, when we become passive, everything we’ve been praying for comes to pass!
First of all, you will be set free!
You will be set free from the burden you were never meant to, and can’t carry anyway; the weight of trying to be holy for God.
And when that happens, you’ll be freed to stop playing God, and simply live as a child of God. You’ll be ready to pray the first word of this prayer, “Father!”
And everything that comes after it, too!
But that’s not all! These four little words will also fulfill your prayer, that God would hallow God’s own name!
God’s name isn’t hallowed when you and I live as if it’s our business to be holy for God. No, that dishonors God’s name. What hallows God’s name is when we let go, and commend the whole enterprise to God’s hands!
So let me entice you to loosen your grip. Let tell you what God’s holiness looks like: It looks like God being God, for YOU! Helping you when you’re helpless. Raising you when you’re dead in the water. Both figuratively and literally.
…It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But in real life, it never is. No sooner do you let go, then you’re right back to trying to pick up the reigns all over again.
This is why these four little words are the summary of the Lord’s Prayer, and the Christian life, too! They’re the sum and total of them! The heart of them! That never-ending request that God would be God, and God would give us the faith to trust God with this holiness business!
You don’t graduate from the Lord’s Prayer. But, when you know that, you’ve got it!
But, the moment you think you’ve got it, you’re right back at the start! Needing to be freed of the impulse to be in control!
It’s a good thing you have this prayer memorized, huh?
…Once you realize how caught you are. How you pray these words with one hand hover over the reigns, you’ll understand just how helpless you are! And then, for maybe for the first time, you’ll genuinely pray these words!
And guess what else?
In that very instant, God’s name will be hallowed! God’s name will be hallowed because God will do what God does best! Be holy! Be holy by being God for you!
It doesn’t matter how you pray these words, desperately, begrudgingly, obliviously, or hopefully. Whenever you pray them, the whole kit and caboodle is handed over to God. If only for an instant. And at that moment, God does what God’s been doing from all eternity, being God for you!
It’s like Luther says in the Small Catechism, God’s name is already holy in itself, but in this prayer, we ask that it may be holy among us. And when life happens in such a way that all you can do is let go of the reigns and ask God to pull off holiness for you, God’s name will be hallowed!
Hallowed be your name, O Lord. Yes, hallowed be YOUR name.
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