Hallowed be Your Name (2020)

We are in a series studying the Lord's Prayer. Hi everybody, my name is René, another one of the pastors here. And before I jump into the sermon, I just want to let you know what we are planning in terms of regathering in person for these worship services. And I don't know about you, but I can't wait.

So here's the plan. On two weekends in July, we're going to have test services, sort of like dress rehearsals with actual living people here in the seats. And then after those test services, we're going to have a staff debrief to look at how they went, to analyze them, to improve them. And then we are going to decide on the next step. But we plan on offering in-person gatherings sometime this summer. And of course, even after we start regathering, we will keep offering these live streams. You don't have to worry about that.

So please pray for us, pray for wisdom, and thank you so much for your patience. And stay tuned for details. Now buckle up, because today we dig into what is probably the least understood phrase in the entire Lord's Prayer. I'm going to look with you at the phrase that everybody pretends to understand, but very few do. "Hallowed be thy name." You know, this is the part of the Lord's Prayer that everybody goes, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name." I'm not sure what that means. Let's just move on to something I understand. "Your kingdom come, your will be done. Give me my daily bread." You know, but obviously Jesus thought this was pretty important.

There's not a lot of words in the Lord's Prayer. He stuck this in there. So what does it really mean? Well today I want to do some detective work. Are you ready for that? We're actually going to go back into history and back into the Bible to unearth clues from some obscure verses to discover the true meaning of this phrase. In fact, I want to solve two mysteries of the Bible today. What does the second phrase in the Lord's Prayer mean and what does the second of the Ten Commandments mean? Because the two are closely related and both of them share something in common. Almost nobody really understands them.

We're gonna go deep today. This is a deep dive church. But if you hang with me you will gain a new understanding not only of these two parts of the Bible but of your purpose in life. Of how each day of your life can have deep meaning assigned to you by God. And you will understand one of the biggest themes of the entire Bible. A theme that is woven all through Scripture yet that so few people today even know about. But once I point it out to you you will see it everywhere in the Old Testament and the New Testament and it will help explain verses that have always puzzled you.

Are you ready for this? All right let's dig in. Let's solve this mystery. First let's look at "hallowed be thy name." Let's break it into words. What in the world does the word "hallowed" or "hallowed" mean? That is a word that almost nobody uses anymore sounds a little bit like Halloween right? Well of course the word Halloween is related to "hallowed" because Halloween is short for "hallowed evening" or "sacred evening" which meant that originally it was a night set apart for something special.

So to "hallow" something means to make it special to set it apart. Dallas Willard defines "hallowed" as uniquely respected and treasured and loved and so the opposite of "hallowed" would be to disrespect something right? To devalue something, to put something down, to hate something, to profane something. So that's what "hallowed" means okay? So what does your name mean? What is Jesus talking about? "Hallowed be your name." Well of course the Bible has many names for God like Yahweh or Jehovah the most sacred but in Bible times a name meant much more than just the literal letters and syllables that make up your actual name word right?

Like it didn't just mean René, it didn't just mean Fred. In Bible times name meant somebody's whole character and reputation and this idea survives even to this day even in the English language. Somebody says "You have slandered my name!" They don't usually mean you made fun of their literal name like René, that's a girl's name which I have heard a thousand times. I'm a little sensitive about that. My middle name is Jennifer but I don't like to talk about it. Just kidding my middle name is Charles but that's not what people mean. They don't mean you've made fun of their literal name.

When they say "You've slandered my name" they mean you have slandered my reputation right? Same idea. Name means your character, it means who you are and this is the way the Bible uses the word name. Let me give you one example. Way back in Exodus, Moses says he wants to see God's glory. He wants to know who God is. Watch how God responds and the Lord said "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence." And in our English Bibles whenever you see "L-O-R-D" in all caps like that, that means in the original Hebrew the word used there is Yahweh, the most sacred name of God.

In fact, eventually devout Jewish people would not even say this name out loud for fear of desecrating it. But here's what I want you to see. Watch this. "Then the Lord came down from the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming, 'The Lord, the Lord.' And this is all part of proclaiming his name." You see? The compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. This is all included in the idea of the name of God.

His compassion, His grace, His patience, His love, His faithfulness, or loyalty. The fact that He forgives wickedness, yet the unrepentant, you know, He does not leave them unpunished. He is also a God of justice. This is what is meant by His name. Now, this helps explain all through the Bible, verses like, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God." Psalm 27. Or, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe." In Proverbs 18:10, I used to wonder, what are they talking about? Are they saying the word Yahweh has some magical power, an incantation like expecto patronum? Is it a magic word? That is not what these verses mean.

When so many verses in the Bible talk about trusting in the name, it means they trust in the character of God, all of this. Like, when I feel down about myself, I run to the name and remember He is compassionate and He is gracious. When I feel upset at injustice, I run to the name and remember He is just. When I'm afraid of the future, I run to the name and remember He is faithful, He is loyal, and He is loving. The name means all of that, all of these character qualities.

So, now that we know what hallow means and now that we know what is implied by name, what does it mean to hallow God's name? And why am I praying for that to happen? Isn't it already hallowed? Isn't God's character already holy? Well, there's a great new book, "Bearing God's Name" by Carmen Joy Imbs, and she points out in this book how 1,400 years before Jesus, the Ten Commandments were given on those two tablets on Mount Sinai. But there is one that is very misunderstood, depending on how you number them. It's usually the second one. "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." She calls it the name command.

What in the world does the name command really mean? Like she says, when I was a little kid, I grew up thinking taking the Lord's name in vain was using Jesus or God as a swear word. Basically, you were going to hell if you did that. So much so that in our house, when I grew up, even gosh was off limits too close to God. "Geez" or "Gee whiz totally taboo too close to Jesus." I couldn't even say Jiminy Cricket either because initials "JC" Jesus Christ. I actually got my mouth washed out with soap for that one. I remember going, "Mom, Jiminy Cricket is not a swear word. Stop saying this!" My Swiss mother was not convinced.

I don't think that's what this verse means. I don't think that's what taking the name of the Lord means. Now, just to be clear and to forestall any angry emails, I do not think it is a good idea to use God's name as a swear word. It dishonors God and it offends many people. So it's unwise. But I do not think that that's what this particular command is about. You know, let me put it this way. What could this mean? That is so important that it makes the top ten. There's only ten of these top commandments, right? It probably was not meant to forbid little kids from saying Jiminy Cricket.

What is the big deal that this makes it onto the stone tablets? Well, as Dr. Imes points out, the literal translation of the Hebrew is, "You must not bear or carry the name of Yahweh, your God, in vain." But most translators decided, "Well, that doesn't make any sense in English because in English names aren't carried, right? Names aren't lifted. They're spoken. They're not born." So they thought this must have to do with speaking the name of God in some unworthy way. And so that's how they usually translate it.

But as she says, the problem with that translation is not only that that's not what the verb means, but also that almost all those interpreters overlook the context. Now here's where this gets deep. The closest passage to the Ten Commandments narrative is a passage that totally illuminates the meaning of this verse. It has the key that unlocks all these mysteries. The passage is Exodus 28, which at first doesn't look like much. It's giving specific instructions for what the high priest should wear. What a snoozer, right? Usually that's part of the Bible we skip.

But check this out. He had to wear a very specific garment. He had a breastplate, basically a vest, and it had 12 precious stones on it. And each stone was engraved with the name of one of the 12 tribes of Israel. He bore their names because he was representing them to God. That's why it says whenever Aaron enters the holy place he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breast piece. He was literally carrying the names of Israel as their representative to God.

And the Bible also says that Aaron had a thin strip of gold on his forehead engraved with the Lord's name, Yahweh, because he bore the name of the Lord to the people as God's representative to them. He was a name bearer. Literally he was walking around bearing these names. That's what the high priest did. This symbolized his job. He represented the people to God and God to the people. Then in several verses that followed the entire nation of Israel is told they were to have the same role to be name bearers to the world. God says I have put my name on them. They are now a nation of name bearers.

They were name bearers of God to the world. Don't miss this. The nation of Israel's original calling, their purpose, their vocation, the thing that they were born to do, put on the planet to do, was represent God to the rest of humanity. So when God said do not bear the name of the Lord in vain, it means a lot more than yelling, you know, "Oh my God!" when Jimmy Garoppolo overthrows his wide-open receiver in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl in a potential game-winning play. And I will get over that eventually.

It's not really about what we think of as swearing, which I still think is wrong. Don't get me wrong. I don't like it. It's not about swearing. It's about living. It equals represent me well. Bear me well to the world. You know, I was in a Zoom conference last week and one of the speakers, Wes Davis, had a great story. He said he was in India speaking at a conference and the host noticed that he only drank Coke the entire time. And he said, "Why are you only drinking Coke?" And Wes said, "Well, you know, drinking water can be problematic for people not used to H2O and certain countries, so Coke is just safer. It's my go-to drink on mission trips."

And his host said, "That's funny because until 1993 you couldn't even find Coke in India." And so when Wes got back to his room, he Googled it and it's true. What happened was this. 1950 Coke came to India, failed. Even though they tried ads, billboards, failure. 77 left, actually left the entire country. 93, they came back with a new strategy. And now in 2020, get this, it is easier to find Coke in India than clean water, which I'm not sure is progress, but it shows their new strategy worked.

Why? What was the new strategy? What possibly could have worked when ads and billboards and marketing dollars didn't? Coke hired Indian celebrities, sports figures, actors as brand ambassadors, brand evangelists. Basically their whole job was they were already famous, their job they were hired, they were paid extra money to just drink Coke in public. And they would be photographed and printed in the paper and in later years posted on social media and many times they just happen to be drinking Coke at home or on vacation or at work or wherever, literally lifting the name Coke. Bearing the name Coke.

And since their success with the strategy in India, Coke has tried this in every country and I guess it works because every day across the world Coke sells 1.9 billion products. In fact, the number two most recognized symbol in the world today is the cross. The number one symbol, the Coca-Cola label. They say that 99% of people in the world when they see the red and white, they see the shape of the bottle and so on, they know that's Coca-Cola. Why? Well Coke could tell you it's because of their most successful strategy, brand ambassadors.

You see why I tell you the story? The Bible is saying Israel's purpose was sort of to walk around the world and be the brand ambassadors for God to bear his name well. And this theme runs all through the Bible. Now that you know it, you will see it everywhere and it will help explain some previously obscure verses in the Bible like Psalm 45:17. "I will make your name famous from now on so people will praise you forever and ever." Or Psalm 34:3. Join me everyone. Let's praise the Lord together. Let's make him famous. Let's make his name glorious to all. They're living out their purpose. They're his brand ambassadors.

Unfortunately, the Bible tells us the people of Israel did not always do this well. Like in Ezekiel, God says, "But when they arrived in the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name. I was concerned for my holy reputation which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they went. Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says. It's not for your sake that I'm about to act, O house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy reputation which you profaned among the nations where you went.'" Now he's talking about a specific generation in the history of Israel. This is in the Bible so clearly this is not some anti-Semitic statement.

He is calling this generation of people to repentance. He's saying, "I will gather Israel back together again. It's gonna be such a miracle that people are gonna turn back to me when they see it." He says, "I will magnify my great what name which has been profaned among the nations which you have profaned among them." How many times can he say they profaned his name? I don't think he likes it because he's saying their behavior has caused the reputation of their faith, of their God, to be profaned, to be made fun of, to be devalued.

And you know this happens every time people who bear the name of any faith or of any profession or of any country behave badly. They profane the name of what they belong to like a bad cop, a bad teacher, a bad politician, or closer to home for me, a bad preacher. I mean I'm old enough to remember how a bunch of televangelists were caught, it seemed like one after another, in the 80s with all kinds of stuff embezzling and lying and fooling around and Christians became the butt of every joke. In fact, I'd say to this day we're still suffering the damage.

Like it or not, that is what happens when one CEO of a company, member of a team, or a fraternity, or a nation behaves badly, it reflects on the whole group, right? But on the other hand, when we are good brand ambassadors, it can change the world. And again this theme all through the Bible, have you ever noticed how the night before his crucifixion, Jesus prayed, "Father, I have," don't miss this, "manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world." What he's saying is he perfectly fulfilled what Israel had been called to do.

Do you remember that description of God's character when he revealed his name to Moses? If you think about it, Jesus manifested that character perfectly. I'll show you something. I love, love, love this Rembrandt etching of Jesus with the little children and the sick and the outcasts. But when we see Jesus in the Gospels with racial outsiders like Samaritans, or despised authority figures like tax collectors and centurions, or with lowly people and quotes like prostitutes or little children or the sick, we see God's name manifested.

Because right there, that's the name of God. Love and compassion and forgiveness and patience and justice, he manifested it perfectly. And don't miss this. Now the Bible says this is your calling too. All through the New Testament there's things like, "If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear, you wear, you carry that name." Now you are a name-bearer. I am a name-bearer like a brand ambassador, but not for Coke. And don't get me wrong, not even for our local church or denomination or something, but for God.

So how's our brand doing? Well did you know that right now 46% of Americans say that when it comes to what's happening in the country today, religion is part of the problem, not the solution, the problem. About half of all Americans believe that the majority of charitable work in the nation providing food, shelter, counseling, disaster relief would all still happen if all the Christians in churches disappeared. Now among non-religious people, three out of five believe that even though most of the charity work in America is done by churches and Christians, could you say we have a brand identity problem?

That is why I think it's so important for you and me and for us together as the body of Christ here locally that we call Twin Lakes Church to always have as part of our DNA to mix it up in the community, to do good in the world, to do good in our county, not for our churches brand, not for my reputation or for yours, but because we are name-bearers, we are brand ambassadors for the Lord.

Here's the way I like to envision it sometimes. I pray that this church, that my life, that your life moves the needle a little bit from people profaning God's name to hallowing God's name. Now what's gonna move that needle? When they see the name of God born well, carried well, that's gonna start to change their mind about my King and about his kingdom. And this is exactly why Jesus says earlier in the same sermon where he does the Lord's Prayer, "Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." That's another way of saying, "Hallow his name."

So how can we do this in this cultural moment? Well, in the midst of the racial discussion going on now saying, "You know what? I'm walking alongside of you like God does. I'm seeking justice like God does. I'm committed to helping the poor and the marginalized like God is." And to law enforcement officers who are undergoing a crisis in morale. They're already working long hours at low pay in tough conditions which are getting tougher. Does reform need to happen? Reform always needs to happen in every circumstance.

But as name bearers we can come alongside them and be merciful and be helpful and be compassionate and listen and be a paraclete, a counselor, a helper like God is. That's going to move the needle in their lives. Or to older people and to those most vulnerable to COVID-19. Being a name-bearer means, you know, not being ageist. I've heard people say, the way I've heard people talk, I'm telling you, I've heard people say this sentence, "Coronavirus is no big deal. It mostly affects the old like it only affects the deadwood." Terrible.

A name bearer makes sure those populations know we are for you too. We have not abandoned you. We still think there's great potential and promise in your life just as God does for older saints all through the pages of the Bible. That's gonna move the needle in their lives from disregarding devaluing the name of the God to worshiping and hallowing God's reputation and character. And by the way you don't get to choose when you are a name bearer. You're a name bearer in the way you drive, in the way you talk to your kids, in what you watch on TV, and what you say to your spouse.

So deep breath. Do you see what all this has to do with that mysterious phrase in the Lord's Prayer, "Hallowed be your name." Jesus is basically saying, "May I fulfill the mandate of the second commandment in my life. Father, may your character be made manifest in my life. May I be a good brand ambassador. May we live lives that cause your name to be lifted up, to be uniquely treasured again." And so I just want to challenge you. Ask yourself, does the life that I live have a natural tendency to cause people to move closer toward interest in Jesus.

I'll close with this story. A man named Chuck who led a college ministry at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo writes, "Allen and I met decades ago. We were both students at Cal Poly. I was a freshman. He was a junior as a physics major. Allen was both intelligent and articulate. But Allen was extremely skeptical of anything religious, especially Christian. Allen believed that Christianity was unable to pass the methodological requirements of science. He therefore pled agnostic. There simply wasn't enough evidence to warrant belief in God. That's what he often said.

But he liked to hang out with us and we tried to include Allen in anything we were doing. Well, one night something happened. A bunch of friends had gotten together for a praise night on the beach with our guitars, picnic blankets. Allen came along to enjoy the sunset, a roaring bonfire. By the time the evening was over, Allen had made a commitment to follow Jesus. Nobody had even spoken to him. Well, the next day he came to tell me what had happened. But Allen, I said, I thought you were never going to become a believer unless there was first enough hard evidence. Yes, Chuck, he replied, but that's precisely why I now believe. It's how you all love each other that strikes me most.

I've never considered that piece of evidence before. He went on, a good scientist, you know, considers all the facts and I simply haven't found the love that you Christians have for each other anywhere else. That is evidence enough for me that Jesus is Lord. You see, they were name bearers of Jesus Christ to him and you are a name bearer to the world around you. So we pray our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. May we live in such a way that we cause your name to be more honored in a world that sometimes devalues you and mocks you, but may we not attack people who attack you, may we live in such a way as name bearers that in our lives people see love and compassion and care and justice and mercy because those characterize the God we love.

And may people esteem the reputation of God more highly because of what they see in us. And God, I also want to pray for anybody joining the live stream today who also wants to bear that name. We all bear the name of something. We all live for something, our company, ourselves. There's nothing more worth living for. No name more worth bearing than the name of Jesus. And so if there's somebody watching who just wants to say, "God, I want to bear your name. I want to be a name bearer. And so I accept Jesus into my life, the name of the God of love. I surrender my life to you. I put you at the center. I hallow you. I give you a place in the very holy of holies in my life. And I believe that your name reached its fullest manifestation in the life, and the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So I commit myself to you now in Jesus name. Amen.