1: In the year that King Uzzi'ah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.
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2: Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
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3: And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."
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4: And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
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5: And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
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6: Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
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7: And he touched my mouth, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven."
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8: And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."

How often do you use the word hallowed (or thy for that matter) in regular conversation? If you’re like me, at least five times a day, right? Probably not. I do not think I ever use this word other than when praying the Lord’s Prayer. I would venture to say that you probably do not either. That seems problematic to me. It edges a little to close to violating Jesus’ command that directly precedes the prayer as it is found in Matthew.

“When you are praying
do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do”
(Mt. 6.7a).

Bible translators are no help to us. Even the TNIV, the most recent contemporary translator has continued to use the King’s English here.

What then are we saying when we pray, hallowed be thy name? And why are we praying it? If we can answer these questions we will avoid heaping up “empty phrases” and be well on our way to praying the prayer that our Savior taught us.

Prayer for Illumination

Almighty God, whose Word is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, grant us grace to receive your truth in faith and love, that by it we may be taught and guided, upheld and comforted, and prepared for every good word and work, to the glory of your name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

While you may not use hallowed in everyday parlance, I’m quite sure you have all heard of Halloween, the eve of All Saints’ Day, or as it used to be known All Hallow Even. The word, hallow, simply means to make holy. It is synonymous with consecrate or sanctify. But, what is holiness? Often we think of holiness in ethical terms. A holy person, we say, is one who follows the commandments and lives purely. But, this is not what holiness means in its initial sense. Something which is holy is something which is set apart for divine purpose or use. God called upon Israel to be “a light to the nations” (Isaiah 42:6), a holy people set apart from the nations, so that they could be a light to the nations. Part of this setting apart was the ethical demands of the covenant God made with Israel.

Now that we have a basic idea of what hallow means, let us go back to our petition and clear up one final ambiguity in the translation of text. Who does the hallowing? As this is a petition to God in prayer, we would think that the actor would be God. But, a quick look at the Greek text clues us in that we too are to hallow God’s name along with God. At this point, you might be inwardly thinking, yeah, uh huh, but what does that mean... That’s ok, just stay with me for a couple more minutes.

For the ancient Israelites and their neighbors, names were much more significant than merely being the name by which someone was called. To know the name was to know the person, so too with the gods. If you knew the name of the god/goddess you could manipulate it into giving you what you wanted, fertility for your cattle and rain for your crops, for example. To know the name of our God, Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is quite different. Psalm 9:10 declares,

“those who know your name, put their trust in you.”

Knowing the name of God does not obligate God to us. Rather, if we know God, that is God’s character, works in the history of salvation, and will for our lives, we will serve God and not visa versa.

So in praying, hallowed be your name, 1) we are praising God for who God is. God is holy! And 2) we are asking God to remain steadfast and faithful to who he is. God the father is the creator and faithful covenant partner of Israel. God the son is our redeemer and Lord. God the Holy Spirit enlivens our hearts with love and groans before God the father our inmost needs. It is this God we praise. It is this God who is Holy.  Glory be to God.

In praying this petition 3) we are entering into communion with the triune God by saying “hallowed be your name” in my life. This is to pray for the fulfillment of God’s command to

“Be holy as I am holy”
(Matthew 5:48)

In our lives. This is to pray that we would be set apart as a church for God’s use, a setting apart that brings both rigorous demands and immense freedom in love for others.

We pray this petition foremost to the glory of God. It is God who deserves the glory first and foremost when we pray and it is God who deserves the glory as we live our lives in response to his wonderful love.

Last week we began to learn what a great privilege it is to pray to God as “our father.” This week we begin to learn that to pray “hallowed be thy name” is to proclaim God’s holiness not only on our lips in our prayers, but with the song that is our very lives.  In Christ, God has cleansed our unclean lips.  Let us go forth prayerfully declaring with the Seraphim in heaven,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory”
(Isaiah 6:3).