There was a devout Jew named Saul who was always zealous about his religion. Saul took his beliefs seriously, so that they were more real to him than the world before him. He couldn’t stand any corruption in the teachings of his faith. So when he learned about a sect called “the Way,” and how it challenged the basic assumptions of his religion, Saul did his best to destroy it. The Bible says that he was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples….”
That Saul was later known as Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ. He was converted and sent directly by Jesus to teach the doctrines of “the Way.” Around that time, believers became known as “christians.”
Saul, or Paul, is a good example for us of the difference that true faith makes. At first, his own point of view was corrupted by the basic assumptions he had been taught. But after he was converted and corrected, Paul became one of the most powerful preachers of the same faith he had formerly persecuted. The true faith changed all his words and actions. It changed his life.
One of the decisive moments was when Paul was baptized. From that time, he lived a new life, just as we all do. We receive true life from God through Baptism and faith in the Gospel. And then what? Then we breathe. The faith of a Christian inhales the Word of God and His sacraments, just as your body inhales the air around you for its powerful oxygen. The faith of a Christian exhales in the words and deeds of an active faith. That’s the change we saw in Paul.
One of the most important things that a believer does is pray to his God and Savior. We listen to what He says in His written and preached Word, but we also have His invitation and command to speak to Him. He even promises to hear us. So today our sermon series turns to focus upon the parts of the Small Catechism that relate to Christian prayer, an important part of Christian life.
We take as our theme the words, “Let us pray.” Let us pray, using the name of the true God, and sanctifying it with our words and deeds.
“And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Today we focus especially upon the first petition of our Lord’s prayer, Hallowed be Thy name. “Petition” sounds like a fancy word, but it really means asking another for something. A petition is a request. In the Lord’s Prayer, there are seven petitions.
Let’s read together the explanation of the First Petition from the catechism insert.
The First Petition: Hallowed be Thy name. What does this mean? God’s name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be holy among us also. How is God’s name hallowed? God’s name is hallowed when His Word is taught in its truth and purity, and we as the children of God live holy lives according to it. This grant us, dear Father in heaven! But he who teaches and lives otherwise than the Word of God teaches dishonors God’s name among us. From this preserve us, heavenly Father!
We begin praying by calling upon God our Father, who promised to hear us and has guaranteed that promise by sending His Son to save us. So we pray using the name that God Himself has given us, which allows us to address the one, true God with confidence that He hears us. We pray from the new life of faith which God sealed to us with His own name in holy Baptism. So dear Christians, let us pray in truth, using the name of the true God.
The very first petition returns our thoughts to the blessed Name received by all His baptized children: Hallowed be thy Name. We do not pray only about a certain word or title that we use for God, but about His entire reputation in our hearts, based upon all that He has revealed, said, and done. The Name of God can be summarized briefly, as He has done in the baptismal formula. But when you first hear those words, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” you have only begun to know the Name of the living God.
God’s name includes every true reference to Him, and every accurate description of Him. It’s so important to those who believe in His salvation that we pray about it in this very first petition. We don’t ask that His name be merely used, or even respected. We ask that it should be hallowed.
Names are important for us. They help us to think and speak about the people they identify. They also allow us to know anyone outside of ourselves and communicate with them personally. You can make small talk with unknown strangers, but to really converse you need to get to know each other a bit.
Now, prayer is a gift from God. It’s an open line of communication directly from us to Him. You might think of this gift as having God’s personal email address or phone number. With prayer, you can send Him messages that bypass all the usual daily chatter, and be certain not only that He receives them, but actually reads each and every one. On the other hand, there is no delay. There is no list of messages for Him to wade through. When you pray, God knows what you will say even before you have asked.
But there are many people who have the wrong address or number. Jesus mentioned them in our text as the heathen. Their prayers go to some other god, even though the name may sound similar. But there is really no true God at the other end of that address. There may well be an impostor, a thief or murderer like Satan. But there is no true God. In their uncertainty, the heathen try to ensure that someone hears them by what Jesus calls vain repetition. In other words, they babble on and on, but are never sure who (if anyone) can hear them. We should certainly avoid praying that way.
Genuine prayer works, but only because it reaches the genuine God who can hear and answer. For that to happen, the one praying must know the name of God. That is, he must know something of how God has revealed Himself to us in His Word and His works. All of that is bound up in God’s holy name. So let us pray indeed, but pray to the one, true God by using the Name that He revealed in order that we may know Him.
We ask in the First Petition that God’s name be hallowed. Now, where else have you ever used the word “hallowed?” It’s not very common, is it? We hear references to God all the time, from the abbreviated exclamation spelled in only three letters, “OMG,” to longer articles in newspapers, magazines, or even books. We probably hear at least ten references to God (or at least to a god) every day, but outside of the Lord’s Prayer, we probably almost never hear the word “hallowed.”
The word “hallowed” means “sanctified,” or more simply, “set apart from all other things.” We are not asking that God make His name holy in general, because it’s already as holy as anything could be. Instead, we are asking that it might be holy in our own hearts and on our own lips, and in our own actions. It’s ironic that we see so little of the word “hallowed,” while seeing so many references to God each day. You see, many of those references — maybe nearly all of them — do not set God’s name apart from all other things. Most times God’s name is used on earth, it’s not hallowed at all.
The unbelieving world turns the holy name of God into an expletive, not so different from the “OMG” so often punched into electronic messages these days. When anything holy is used in a common or unholy way, we say that it has been profaned. So now you know the reason some words are called “profanities.” They take the holy name of God and treat it as a common word. Instead of hallowing God’s name, they do the opposite: they profane it.
But the unbelieving world does not carry all the blame for profaning God’s name. Believers themselves do it too, because every redeemed child of God still lives with a wicked, sinful nature inside. We are not excused by the sinful nature. Instead, we are accused by God’s righteous law. How can we pray the Lord’s Prayer when we so easily slip into the old thoughtless habits of profaning God’s name? Maybe our prayers are thoughtless too! We deserve wrath, not mercy.
But the ways we profane God’s name go much further than using it as an exclamation or expletive. Look again at the catechism explanation of the way God’s name is hallowed. “He who teaches and lives otherwise than the Word of God teaches dishonors God’s name among us.” Are your words and deeds always in perfect harmony with God’s Word? I know you try to make it so, but that’s your believing nature, your New Man. Doesn’t the sinful flesh, your Old Adam, show through every day? Some days more than others! If we ever say anything that contradicts God’s Word, we dishonor His name. Yikes! If we live against His commandments, we also dishonor Him with our actions, which speak louder than words.
What truly sets the name of God apart from all idols is what He has done to redeem us from the guilt of our sins. He has redeemed you! God the Father sent God the Son into the world, to be born a perfect Man. He gave His life to redeem you, suffering the due punishment for your guilt. Jesus has taken your guilt and disposed of it forever upon His cross. That act of God has distinguished the true God from every idol, and has made it possible for you to know Him, and to pray. In Jesus, you are forgiven. Therefore, you can be absolutely certain that God hears your prayers, just as He has promised.
Your life is renewed daily in Christ, because the message of God’s forgiveness comes to you afresh every day, and every week. It not only delivers you from your guilt and the death it deserves, God’s forgiveness also empowers you to live this new, eternal, Christian life. It allows you to live in the Name by which you have been saved.
So we may be certain that our prayers to God are heard in Christ. But we may also be certain that in Christ, God is pleased with our own words and deeds that proceed from faith. They are the good fruit of a good tree, produced as a direct result of God’s holy name. As our Catechism says, God’s name is kept holy when His Word is taught purely, and we live holy lives according to it.
Though your life is still full of sin, God has forgiven that sin and effectively purged it from the record of your life. He is pleased to receive all the fruits of your faith left over, to the glory of His own holy name. Thanks be to God!
Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!