[AI translation] The very first petition of the beautiful prayer that Jesus taught us, the Lord's Prayer, which I have just read out, is perhaps the least obvious to us. Even if one does not say it in a cliché, as we usually do, but with really good thought and reflection, I think that we do not really understand what we are asking for with this petition: 'Hallowed be thy name'.It would be good first to clarify the words themselves, so that we can really get to the depths of the request itself. Right away, the first difficulty is the name of God himself. Because the question here is really, does God have a name? Because this word "God" is not a name, it is not a name of God. This only indicates that we are not talking about a man or a plant or anything else, but we are talking about God. The word "god" is just as generic as "man" or "plant". So it is not the name of our Father, in whom we believe, who revealed Himself in Jesus. It is not a proper name like John or Richard. Moreover, even the name Father or the word Father is not a name of God, it is rather a relation, an expression of God's relation to man. And Almighty, or Eternal, or Most High, these are all, in fact, to some extent indications of what God is like, but they are not names of God. Even when we say Father, Son, Holy Spirit, we do not pronounce the name of God, for by this peculiar expression we are again pointing to the mysterious One Who has revealed Himself to us men in the triune unity of Father, Son, Holy Spirit. So again we are expressing by it that we cannot name Him, we cannot give Him a name.
We can name a man, a plant, or a sea, we can name our father, our friend, or a head of state. We can even call a pagan god by his name: Zeus or Jupiter, but we cannot name God. We cannot just call him by his name, because God has no name. There is one word in the Bible that is commonly referred to as God's name in the Old Testament, the mysterious four letters YHVH, which is often found in the Bible, but unfortunately not in our translation. These four letters express the very fact that God cannot be named. For today we cannot even pronounce these four letters. And even in Jesus' time, they did not know which letters to insert between the four consonants in order to find the correct, original pronunciation. Even the Jews of the Old Testament, when they saw these four letters written in their Bibles, did not pronounce them, but said something else instead. For example, they would say Adonai, which means Lord, or Elohim, which means God. So these four letters, YHVH, even with the probable vowels interposed, so Yehovah or Yahweh, most often mean something like someone who is. It is not a name for God, but only a reference to the mysterious One Who is, Who was, Who will be, and therefore Who is above all things. It is as if these four letters were saying, proclaiming, that however mysterious, however hidden, however incomprehensible, however inaccessible, however unknowable I am to you, you can be sure of one thing: that I am and will be forever. That I am and will be, you will feel it powerfully now and later. So the four letters, this YHVH, are so unnameable that even the oldest translation of the Old Testament, the so-called Septuagint, renders it as kyrios, which means Lord in Hungarian. So again, it does not translate YHVH into Greek, but uses a completely different word instead.
The most modern, modern Jewish translation of the Old Testament, Martin Luther King's beautiful translation, used by many Protestant theologians, renders YHVH as: He. The great He, the unnameable He above all other names, the eternal He. When Jesus tells us to pray, "Hallowed be thy name", we are not thinking of such a name or such a name, but of that great He without a name. For the name of God is a symbolic expression. The name of God means God Himself, Himself, His being, His reality, His mysterious and supreme Person, as He has revealed Himself to us in the Old and New Testaments, and especially in the Lord Jesus Christ. So let us always understand the name of God in this way. But what does it mean to "hallow" this name? Perhaps we can get a little closer to the original meaning of the word, or a little closer to this particular word, if I try to illustrate it with an example. The other day someone was talking about his mother, who is dead. She told me what a great person she was, what an outstanding personality, how much love she had and how much sacrifice. At the end, he finished, "My mother's memory is sacred to me. My mother's memory is sacred to me. It means that she has unconditional respect for it, that she pronounces its name with a kind of holy reverence, and that she almost purifies herself by thinking about it, and draws strength from it not to bring shame on that name. He protects it against all attacks, refuses to allow it to be defiled, to defile, to mock this most precious treasure of his life.
Many things can be sacred to man in this way. A name, an idea, a piece of land, a memory, a feeling can be sacred. But beyond all these, the most sacred and the only truly sacred is the living God himself. You have heard me read Isaiah's vision (Isa 6:1-7). What he describes in this testimony, what he saw in his raptured state, is quite moving. He saw the heavenly beings standing and hovering around the throne of God covering their faces because they could not bear the glare of God's holiness. So they cannot help but sing without ceasing this devout hymn, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, full is the earth of his glory" (Is 6:3). It is the very holiness of God that is impressive, that inspires admiration and reverence. It is the holiness of God that makes man dwarfed, almost shrunken, annihilated. It is holiness that inspires in man the awesome joy and joyful awe of sacrifice. That which stands as absolute authority over man. It is the holiness of God whose annihilating power and immeasurable goodness, whose power to overcome all resistance, brings him to his knees spiritually. Yes: holy, holy, holy Lord of hosts! Now, to say, "Hallowed be thy name," does not mean that it should be more holy than it is, for God, the name of God, is in itself the most holy, to which we can no longer add anything, to which we can no longer change anything, but somehow we ask that thy name, our Father, be hallowed, as it is in heaven, so also here on earth. For this by-phrase belongs to all three petitions. Also to "hallowed be thy name". So that as in heaven, so here on earth, may the holiness of God be made known, may the holiness of God be made known, so that the Holy God may be truly holy for us, not only for the angels.
So it means something like this, that when we say this precious word: my God, or my Father, or my Saviour, or Jesus, then let our souls shudder with the consciousness of the majesty of having now addressed the absolute holy one, having now entered into the presence of the absolute holy one. Let us always speak of Him and think of Him as if we were praying. In reverence, as it were, merged in His holiness, like the smoke rising from the altar of sacrifice to the bluish heights. Rising, purified, filled also with reflection. You have heard from the Word that these innocent heavenly beings, these seraphim, cover their faces in the blinding radiance of God's presence. And we, men of earth, so carelessly, we sometimes do not realize how carelessly and how irreverently, how thoughtlessly we can utter the name of God, and we can speak of Him. As if it is so self-evident that we can speak to God at all with our sinful human lips.
Yes, God is our Father, yes, God is good, of course God is redeeming and merciful and gracious and forgiving of sins - but God is not an equal partner, but precisely our holy Father and holy Saviour! So you cannot play with him like a good mate, nor bargain with him like a merchant, nor cajole him like a little child, because God is a holy God. He is a holy God, even in his earthly person, who is a holy God, whose name is above every other name, because he has no name. So God is holy in Himself and we did not make Him so, just as we do not set the day and night. The sun shines brilliantly even when there are clouds in the sky, only these clouds block the earth from the sun's light, they block the path of the sun. So also evil clouds rise from the earth and obscure the radiance of the holiness of God. Well, then, this is what this prayer is fighting against: "Hallowed be thy name." Let the light of the holiness of God shine mightily and clearly upon this earth.
Someone might say that this is all very well and good, but how does it happen in practice that the name of God is sanctified? Somehow, perhaps, by saying two little words afterwards in your own mind every time you say this prayer-part. One: in me, the other: by me. So: hallowed be your name in me. We have just sung hymn 165. Few know that the song is the song of Tersteegen. The main purpose of the life of Tersteegen, this very blessed man of faith, a very serious man of faith, a poet, was to sanctify the name of God in him. That is why he was so far from vanity, so far from allowing his picture to be painted, so far from refusing the repeated request to write the story of his life, which had been so blessed to so many. His whole attitude is a proclamation: let people look at him, not at me! He wanted to live in silence, in seclusion, because he wanted the name of Tersteegen to be forgotten by all, and the name of Jesus to be etched all the more deeply in the souls of all men.
Such was John Calvin, the great reformer of Geneva. Anyone who knows his writings and his life will feel very well that Calvin himself would have objected most strongly to anyone ever wanting to call himself a Calvinist. For he never wanted to be prominent. Because he always wanted to stand behind Jesus, so that he would not somehow obscure the person of Jesus with his own person.
You know his coat of arms: a hand holding his heart, with two letters on it, J and C. The uninitiated think that J stands for John and C for Calvin, but it doesn't. J is Jesus, C is Christ. He himself explained the meaning of his coat of arms thus: 'I lift up my heart as a burnt offering before the Lord. For he himself did not want his name to be great, but the name of the Lord to be great, holy and glorious. Now therefore, in this manner shall the name of God be hallowed in me, and in you. So let there be holiness in us that fills our whole life. So let us give our whole heart, that the fire of His holiness may burn out of our lives everything that is contrary to the holiness of God.
The holiness of God is awesome, it would devour the life that comes near it, just as the terrible heat of the sun would devour us if we fell into it. But the same devouring heat that glows within the Sun and blazes in its rays, yet becomes a life-giving force on earth. So the holiness of God also has such a life-giving radiance. And that is Jesus. Jesus is the radiance of God. And in order for the awesome ray of God not to be eternalized, but to become for us a sanctifying, life-giving, renewing, purifying power, we need Jesus. When we pray: "hallowed be your name", we are crying out for Jesus, we are offering our lives to Jesus. Then we want to breathe into ourselves the divine life-force that the Holy God radiates through Jesus on this earth. In this way, this prayer becomes a precious occasion of being filled again and again with Jesus. "Hallowed be thy name" in me, then I ask something like this: Lord, grant, Lord, let the blessings of thy love, thy goodness, thy patience, thy peace, thy purity, thy holiness, flow into me and fill my whole life in all its aspects. This "hallowed be thy name" in me.
And the "hallowed be thy name" in me? Perhaps we will understand better if I try to illustrate the opposite of this with an example.The other day an atheist was complaining very bitterly about his neighbour. He said: he may be a good church-goer, but he is a bad neighbour. This is a desecration of God's name. To such a one the Scripture pronounces one of the most terrible judgments: 'For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you' (Rom 2:24). They are there in the church, and they think they are better than others. But... Yes, we are just as selfish, just as selfish, just as selfish, just as angry, just as envious. We complain just as much as those who do not bear this holy name. Because we do. Do you remember, you know that we have been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?! So if we are just like that, so selfish, so vain, so envious, etc., then the name of God is profaned through us. Beware, for it is not the pagans who profane the name of God, who may use that holy name in blasphemy, but the unfaithful believers who profane it. "Hallowed be thy name" - by me. That is, let me not hinder the outpouring of His holiness in this world, but in all my work, in much of my wickedness, in all my work, in all my life, let the power, the beauty, the blessed influence of His holiness shine through me, so that when men see my works, they may glorify my Father in heaven. To this we commit ourselves, and to this we ask His help when we pray, "Hallowed be thy name".
I said at the very beginning that this is perhaps the least obvious request in the whole of our Lord's Prayer. Now let me add at the very end that it is perhaps the most difficult. Perhaps the most difficult, but Jesus has put it on our lips, let us dare to ask with Him, "hallowed be thy name". With this, let us all plead with the words of our song:
Hallowed be thy name,
That is to say, because we have done it,
That we may know you truly
To know you, to fear and to respect you,
To behold your great works of wisdom
And all thy perfections.
Our thoughts and our speech,
And all our lives
So let it flow and so let it shine,
So that all may know it,
That thou, holy God, art our Father,
Thou art an example to thy children.
(Canticle 483, verses 4-5)
Amen
Date: 27 October 1968.
Lesson
Ézs 6,1-8