Lent One

Lent One HOLY NAME, HOLY CHILDREN 2/25/07

John, early in the first chapter his Gospel account, writes: “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become the children of God…”(Jn. 1: 12) We sing this assurance in the Hymn of Praise, “This is the feast of victory for our God…whose blood set us free to be people of God.” (LBW) St. Paul wrote to the Christians in the city of Galatia, “…for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.”(3:26) Prayer, specifically the Lord’s Prayer, is given by Jesus for the children of God! Every time we say “Our Father,” we pray together with Jesus and with brothers and sisters of God’s family. We can never pray the Lord’s Prayer in isolation, although we often pray it alone. We, and the sum total of all believers in Christ, pray with Him and with one another. The Lord’s Prayer is FOR CHILDREN ONLY!

This One we call upon as “Our Father” said of Himself: “I am the Lord,that is my name.” (Isaiah 42:8) As the children of God, we bear the name of God, the holy, “hallowed” name of God. Loving, loyal children will uphold the family name. In

(1 Peter 2:14-15) we are instructed: “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But, just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” As sisters and brothers of Christ, whatever we do or say, or fail to do or say, reflects mightily upon the name we commonly bear: Christian. I’m well-aware that such teaching runs counter to our self-centered, sinful human nature, reflected in such inane comments as “It’s my life!” and “What I do is nobody else’s business!” No one can pray the Lord’s Prayer and offer such remarks! When we pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name,” we are asking God’s Holy Spirit to help us be holy children, bearing God’s holy name, making our heavenly Father proud, as the family of God!

When we are honest, we confess that over the generations the Church has done a pretty poor job of honoring our “family” name! For comparison, recall what Jesus said of Himself in John 17:4/ “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do” and John 17:6/ “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.” How does our obedience to God’s will compare with this description offered by Jesus? Can we truthfully say that our daily desire and greatest goal, as children of God is to hallow God’s name?

“Hallowed” is very much like the word Jesus uses in our Gospel lesson this week, “to glorify”…to “set apart above everything common and profane; to esteem, honor, prize, hold in reverence, and adore as divine and infinitely blessed.” Again, I ask us all: “Does the term ‘hallowed’ identify and describe our attitude toward God and our faith relationship with Him? Do we “esteem, honor, prize, hold in reverence and adore” God in all our ‘thoughts, words, and deeds’?” We already know the answer to these questions, for we confessed earlier in our worship. We are reminded, yet again, of how relatively easy it is to say “Hallowed be Thy name” and how difficult the daily challenge to live the words we pray!

Honestly…do we not more often mean “My Father who art in heaven; honored be my name; my kingdom come, my will be done on earth as Yours is in heaven; give me this day my daily bread; and forgive those who trespass against me, since I never do anything wrong”? For goodness sake, we are often more excited about being face to face with a star or celebrity than we are about meeting the Almighty God in disciplined study of Scripture and weekly celebration of worship! I remember ruining a perfectly good golf shirt when I begged a golfer at the Memorial Tournament to write his name across my sleeve with a permanent marker. I did not even know who he was, nor do I remember his name this morning, but I figured he must be someone important and I was standing next to him. I was more eager to bear his name than many of us might be to bear and hallow God’s name!

The world accuses the Church of being full of hypocrites and, in this regard, we are guilty as charged! We go on praying the Lord’s Prayer, choosing often to dishonor God’s name. We excuse ourselves with the lame excuse that “we are only human”! To say this is inaccurate in describing and inconsiderate in defining who we are through Jesus Christ. We are, as children of God and siblings of the Savior, expected to hold God’s name on high, as we sing: “My gracious Master and my God, Assist me to proclaim, To spread through all the earth abroad the honors of your name.” (LBW #559) and “Though he giveth or he taketh, God his children ne’er forsaketh; His the loving purpose solely to preserve them, pure and holy.” (LBW 474)!

Amen.