Lord's Prayer:
Hallowed Be Your Name

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

 Sunday, June 10, 2007

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

This morning, we’re going to do this a little bit different because I’m going to need your help, at least for the first part of the message this morning. I know it’s early but try to wake up a little bit. I want you to help me remember some of the old slogans or maybe they’re still new that different companies have come out with, okay? What I want you to do is I want you to fill in the blank for me. You don’t have to do it in your mind. You can go ahead and just tell me. So altogether, we’ll start out really easy. It’s Iowa so we all know this one, right? “Nothing runs like a . . .” Deere. See, everyone knew that. Those of you who like Case, I’m sorry. Okay. Nothing runs like a Deere. Okay. Do you remember which company had the slogan, “The quality goes in before the name goes on?” Magnavox. Somebody else said Ford. I think Ford picked up on it, too. So Magnavox, where “the quality goes in before the name goes on.” Now to be fair to the other American car companies, Chevys then are what? They’re like a . . . A rock, right? And just to be fair, if you’re going to buy a Dodge truck, you can be assured that it’s “ram tough.” Sorry, I’m a Chrysler man. It’s ram tough. Now here’s one. We’re going to go back a little bit. So what’s good to the last drop? Maxwell House, right? And a little bit further back than that, “With a name like _______, it has to be good.” Smuckers. You guys remember that one, alright. Yeah.

You know what they all have in common? Every one of those campaigns wanted to tell you more than just the name of their product. They wanted to tell you something about your product. They wanted you to, when you think of Ford, not just think of a car or when you think of Maxwell House, you don’t just think coffee. They wanted you to think of what that’s all about, the good qualities about it. You see, companies will spend billions of dollars and all kinds of effort and time to promote a good name. Because the name is more than just a label. It’s more than just an identification to distinguish it from other products but it also tells you something about their product, all the good qualities they want you to know about it. So when you say “nothing runs like a Deere,” they don’t want you to just think of a tractor or a lawn mower. They want you to think reliability. You can count on it. Or if it’s a Chevy and it’s like a rock, then they want you to think of something which is durable and something which is tough. And when you think of Smuckers, you don’t just think of grape jelly but you think of really good grape jelly. There’s a quality behind it. You see what I’m saying here? The name is more than just the label. It’s more than just an identifier. The name has something much more to it. The name carries with it a reputation. The name carries with it a character, respect. The name in some instances even carries with it the essence of either the person or the thing they’re trying to identify.

That’s why Jesus said, “Pray Hallowed be thy name.” Jesus says when we pray, we’re praying that God would keep His name and all His name represents so it’s more than just an identifier. It’s more than just a label on God. It tells us something about God. It conveys to us the essence of God, the reputation of God, the character of God, that it would all be kept holy, that it would be set apart, that it would be special, that with God’s name, whenever it’s mentioned, we would think of only things that are honorable, that all glory and respect would be given to Him and so it’s a petition in the prayer, not a statement. We’re not making a statement, “Holy is your name, God.” We’re saying, “Hallowed your name, God. Make your name holy, God.” We’re asking God to do whatever it takes to make sure His name and all it represents, all it stands for, would remain separate, set apart, holy, that it would keep His good reputation. And in this petition, we’re even saying to God, “And, God, whatever it takes in my life, make sure I keep your name holy. Whatever it is I can do, make sure through me, your name remains hallowed.”

We keep God’s name holy by two things. The first thing is God’s name is holy when we understand it. That’s the starting block. We need to understand what is God’s name and what does it stand for, what does it represent, what is the character behind it, what is the essence of God here? And God’s name is very distinct among the names of the so-called gods that are out there and the false gods that are out there. God has many descriptor names in scripture. For instance, even in this prayer, Jesus says we’re to approach Him as “our Father in heaven.” That’s a description. It’s a description of the relationship we have with God in heaven. He is our loving Father, the perfect parent we can approach as a parent-to-child relationship. The Old Testament is filled with all kinds of descriptor names for God. So it’s “God Almighty” or it’s “God Everlasting.” It’s “God Most High.” It’s “God Most Merciful.” You see, all those are descriptions of who God is.

But what actually is God’s name? Well, that’s Moses was trying to get at. First of all, Moses is trying to worm his way out of having to go back to Egypt. I mean, that’s his motivation here. He still doesn’t want to go back to Egypt and lead the Hebrew people out of slavery and into the promise land so he’s bantering back and forth with God. So he comes up with this one. He says, “God, if I go back there, they’re going to ask me who sent me. Now what am I going to say? God, you don’t have a name. All these other pagan gods around us have names. Some of them have several gods but they all have names to distinguish themselves from each other.” He said, “So what’s your name, God?” Well, he gets an answer and I’m certain it’s not the answer he expected because God’s answer is unique because His name is unique among all other names. He answers by saying, “I am who I am.” Now that sounds strange enough as it is but let’s dig a little bit deeper, shall we? What God actually says, in the Hebrew, He says, “Yahweh.” In other words, He takes the basic root verb of the Hebrew language and says, “That’s my name.” God says, “My name is a verb, not a noun.” Let that sink in for a minute. God says His name is a verb, not a noun. And the verb He chooses is the base verb of the Hebrew language. That’s why we translate it “I am who I am” because we pick up on the basic verb of the English language, the verb “to be” or “is” in the present, “was” in the past, “will be” in the future. “Is” is God’s name. Well, we couldn’t hardly write in English, “I is who I is.” That doesn’t work, right? But that would actually be more accurate because God says I am the present tense verb “is.” That’s who I am. God says, “I’m not a noun. I’m not just one among many gods that are out there. I’m not simply an identification, a label you can place on me so you can tell the difference between me and the other gods.” He says, “No, no, no, no. I’m much more than that.” You see, the one true God is the God who is, the God who is present. He was present in the past. He is present in this moment. And He will be present in the future. In the New Testament, He says, “I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, and everything in between.” He is the God who is. He is a verb. That means God is active. God isn’t simply a bystander of history watching everything that goes by. He’s not just a spectator of your life and everything is sort of left to chance or happenstance or fate. No, no, no, no. God is and God is active. Every moment of every day, God is present and God is working in His creation and God is working in your life, day in and day out. He is the great Yahweh. He is the great I am God.

The great I am God then has some special characteristics about Him, something that distinguished Him from all other gods, distinguished Him from all the other gods in Moses’ time, and it distinguishes Him from all the other false gods of our current days. In fact, our belief in Him and our belief system that we have in God, what we call Christianity is unique among all religions. It is a unique set of teachings that no one else has in common because God is the great Yahweh God, the great God who is. What I mean by that is God is two different things but at the same time. God is just and righteous and He tells us that “we must live according to His Word.” We must live, if you will, according to the rules He set up. But at the same time, He is a merciful God. So He is righteous and gracious but at the same time.

For instance, God as a just and righteous God said, “Be perfect as I the Lord your God am perfect.” He created mankind perfect, put him in a perfect world and He said if you’re not perfect, as a just and righteous God, there must be punishment for that imperfection. And He says the wages of sin is death. So as a righteous God, as a just God, if there is an infraction, if there is sin, then there must be punishment for that sin but at the same moment, He is a merciful God. And He says, “But I’ll make the payment for you.” So at the same moment that He’s righteous and He says I must live according to my own standards and my standards say that you are to be perfect and if you’re not perfect, you’ll be punished, at the same moment, He says but I will make you perfect and I will declare you righteous and I will take the punishment upon myself.

St. Paul was trying to get at this and I want you to stick with me because this is important to understand who God is. What does it mean that He is the great I am, the God who is? I know it’s kind of deep but here it is. In Chapter 3 of Romans, He says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Okay, guilty. There’s not one of us who can say we’re perfect, that we’ve always followed God’s laws completely but at the same time, He says, “are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” God presented Him as the sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. And then He says this, “He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time right now, the present, to demonstrate His justice so as to be just and the one who justifies.” You see, the God who is can be two separately different things but at the same time. He is the just God who says there must be punishment for sin, but He’s the one who justifies because God in the form of His Son comes and takes our place. He is the sacrifice of redemption so Jesus died so we don’t have to die. So Jesus’ righteousness becomes our righteousness. This is the great I am God, the God who is, the God who is just and at the same time is merciful.

This is the name that we hallow. This is the name which must remain special and unique because it sets God different from all the other false gods. It sets us different from every other false religion. Every other religion of the world will acknowledge the fact that you do things that are wrong. Some will even call it sin the things you do which are wrong. But every other belief system will say you have to do something about it. Every single one of them will say in one shape, form or another you have to make up for it. Maybe you have to suffer pain. You have to have a little more bad karma so you can boost your good karma. Or maybe you have to just try harder and if you don’t make it in this lifetime, that’s okay. You’ll come back again in another lifetime and you’ll have a go at it again. And you’ll just keep repeating that process until finally you’re good enough, finally you hit nirvana or this exalted state, this heavenly place and then you don’t have to do that anymore. But each one of them says you have to do it. God says that’s impossible. God says you’ll never be perfect so God says I’ll make you perfect. And God says I ask nothing of you. God says I’ll do it all for you. He’s just and righteous but He’s also merciful and graceful and in His grace, he says, “I’ve taken care of everything through my Son, Jesus.” Believe in Him as your Lord and Savior. Sins are forgiven. Heaven guaranteed. That is the Yahweh God. That is the God who is. And that is the name we hallow. That name must be kept special and unique with all honor and glory that is due that name so that name can be preached to all people. When we pray, “Hallowed be thy name,” it is the name Yahweh, the great God who is that we want to keep holy.

And we keep that name holy by what we say and by what we do. God says that through us, His name is kept hallowed and special and unique because we as believers in Yahweh, the one true God, are His representatives. We are a reflection of God to the people around us.

Look at it this way. Let’s say on Friday afternoon, you got a wild hair and you said, “You know what? I’m going to go off and buy an F-150 truck.” You’re going to buy a Ford F-150. You head off to the dealership. You don’t care about the gas mileage. You’re going to get a big one with four-wheel drive, club cab, the whole thing. You’re talking to the salesman. You almost have the deal sealed. You say, “You know what? I’m going to think about it. I’ll be back Monday morning to sign the papers.” You shake hands. You leave. Wouldn’t you know it? Yesterday you run into that same salesman and you see him across the room. And you go to walk over to talk to him for a minute but you realize he’s in a conversation. And kind of with a snide tone to his voice, he’s saying things like, “Yeah, Ford, the quality goes in. The problem is we can’t find it. Ha, ha, ha. Ford, fix often, repair daily. Ha, ha, ha.” And then he starts just berating the dealership, about how terrible the owner is and how rotten their service is. And then the next thing you know, he goes outside and jumps into a Toyota pickup truck and he drives home. That is a reflection not only on his poor character but also the products he represents. Is there any way possible you’re going to go in on Monday morning and sign the papers and buy the truck? Not a chance. Everything he said could have been false, could have been untrue but the damage is done. The name has been tarnished.

When people look to us, we can either tarnish God’s name or keep it holy. Because people know that you’re a Christian. If the people around you don’t know you’re Christians, that’s a topic for another week. But I’m going to assume that people around you know you have a belief in Jesus Christ and the one true God, the Yahweh God we’re talking about. Therefore, you’re a reflection of that God. You can either be a positive reflection or a negative reflection. St. Paul again. He’s talking to the church at Rome, this time in the 2 nd Chapter and he says this, “You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law as it’s written? God’s name is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you.” God’s name is tarnished among the unbelievers because of you because you say one thing but you do the exact opposite. You are a reflection of God. That’s why God told us in the commandments, “You are to make sure that you do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain but you treat it with respect.” So just think about your vocabulary for a little bit and think about how you talk. Do you bring glory and honor to God’s name or do you treat God’s name flippantly? And I don’t know how many times I’ve heard God’s name used as an exclamation point. “Oh, my God, I can’t believe that happened!” Or to sort of prove what we’re saying is honest, “I swear to God that is the honest to God’s truth, that’s what I’m telling you right now.” Is that how we are to use God’s name? As an exclamation point? As a backup to the truth of what we’re saying? Even worse than that, what happens when we take the name of our Savior and His title, Jesus Christ, and instead of using that to praise Him, we use it to express frustration or anger and all of a sudden it becomes an explicative? What does that do? That’s a reflection not only on you but it’s a reflection on God as well.

What about the times we don’t live the life we say we believe in when it’s contrary to everything God teaches us, when we lie and cheat and steal and we’re disrespectful, when we fail to show compassion, when we come off as uncaring, when we do whatever we want and step on whoever it is to get where we want to be and people look at us and they say, “If that’s what it is to be a Christian, why would I want to be a Christian?” One of the major roadblocks for people coming and joining a congregation is the belief among the unchurched that we’re just filled with a bunch of hypocrites. “They say one thing on Sunday morning and they live a completely totally different life Monday through Saturday.” What if that’s true? That’s not only a reflection on you. It’s a reflection on our God.

What we’re praying in this petition is that God would turn that around. Hallowed be thy name, God. Keep your name holy. Keep you name holy in my life so everything I say and everything I do would be a reflection of your goodness, of your grace and mercy, that in you people would see the one true God. They’d see the God who is, the God who is a verb, the God who is active, the God who turns things around in your life, the God who is just but also the God who is merciful, that in you they would see a loving God and a compassionate God, that we would be a living testimonial to God and all that He’s done for us.

Jesus said that. This is the same message, the Sermon on the Mount, where He introduced the Lord’s prayer. He said, “In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds,” and what? “And praise your Father in heaven.” As they see you and as they see you living out your faith day in and day out, they give praise and glory to God’s name because you’re a reflection of God.

When I think about a reflection of God, I can’t help but think about Robert Thompson. Bob was a farmer I knew in my first parish and he was close to retirement when I got there, retired by the time I left and he was an old-school farmer. He was a big, burly, rough guy. I think he had hands about this big. I’m not sure. When I shook hands with him, my hands disappeared and you felt the callouses from working on the farm. On the outside, you have this rough, tough, calloused individual but inside was a heart of gold. Inside was a man after God’s own heart. Not once did I ever hear him take the Lord’s name in vain and I was with him in enough circumstances, it would have come out. Not once, except when he was in the hospital, did he miss Sunday worship. And I remember during the spring and the fall, during planting and harvest, he’d come up and he’d say, “Preacher, where are the rest of the people?” I say, “Well, Bob, you know, we’re in a farming community. It’s planting time. They’re out in the fields. They have to get out there while the weather is good. You know, I understand that.” He said, “I don’t. They should be in here. It’s a matter of priorities. I need to hear God’s word. They do, too.” And he meant it. Now to look at Bob walking down the street, a reflection of God, maybe you have this in mind, a reflection of God. That wasn’t Bob, let me tell you. No, that wasn’t him at all. But spend one moment with him and you knew his heart. He reflected the Yahweh God.

When we pray, “Hallowed be thy name,” we’re saying, “God, I understand your name. You’re the great Yahweh, the great is.” And everything we do, we want to bring glory and honor to that name. So we’re asking God, we’re asking that, “You would take charge of our lives, that You would use our words and our actions so your name would always be holy.” Amen.

Copyright 2007 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church