Transcript for What Does “Hallowed Be Thy Name” Mean? (The Lord’s Prayer Pt. 2)

So we know Jesus addressed God as my father. All throughout all four of the gospel accounts in different lines and speeches and so on. So it's significant that when he shares a prayer with his disciples, he takes his own prayer that he would have uttered to his father, but then he pluralizes it. He includes his disciples within the relationship of prayer that he has with my father. becomes our father.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's not everywhere, but there's probably about a dozen different passages throughout the Hebrew Bible where God has either compared to a father, or actually called our Father. So, for example, when Moses in Deuteronomy, chapter one, when he's retelling the story of their wilderness wanderings through the desert, he says in chapter one verse 31, Remember how in the wilderness you saw how Yahweh, your God carried you just as a man carries his son all the way that you walked until you came to this place. So this is very common in the prophets and Psalms where God will be compared to a father, but it's very clear it's like a metaphor.

That's right. And just one other reference that's a little more direct in the book of Isaiah. There's this prayer of penitence, like a confession prayer uttered by the community of prophets that link back to Isaiah. And it's this prayer on behalf of Israel's sins and covenant failures for all through their history leading up to the exile. And so in Isaiah 64 verse 8, kind of there's a pivot moment in the prayer where they say, but now, oh, Yahweh, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter. Heaps of rhyme and English almost. All of us are the work of your hand. So again, this is one of the few places where you always refer to as our father.

You know, Isaiah 63. But it's, yeah, short list, really short list. Yeah.

Right. See, yeah. So the significance that there was in the reason why this important is 100 years ago, it was very common, even in biblical scholarship and commentaries, to read that Father was an uncommon term in Judaism, and that Jesus was innovating here. And so I think that's come to be balanced out, because we've also discovered more second-to-put Jewish literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Yahweh's Father, Again, it appears, but at the point is not innovation, it's emphasis. For Jesus, this was clearly like the main way that he referred to and talked to and related to Yahweh as my father in a way that the emphasis is not parallel to another rabbis and literature of the period.

Yep. That's exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. Jesus shows the way he talks and acts expresses the mindset of somebody who believes their identity is the unique seat of the woman, the chosen son of Abraham, the chosen one of David. and the son of man, the son of humanity from Daniel 7. So, yeah, this is a unique part of the heritage of what Jesus gave to us in this prayer, is that the unique status that he believed he had as the chosen one, the son of the Father, is an identity into which she invites his followers, so that my father becomes our father, hugely significant.

Yes, yeah, that's right.

Yeah, the fact that so much of his teaching and sayings would be marked by this phrase, my father. And then in this prayer, he would include his followers. within that identity as his brothers and sisters. And that comes out in his saying of who are my brothers and sisters. Those who do the well. Those who do the will of the father or those who follow my teachings. He says both things on different occasions. And we see the same theme echoed like you said in Hebrews. We also see a couple times in Paul's letters. where he talks about, for followers of Jesus whose life is inhabited by the presence of the living God. He talks about how that experience is being invited to call God Abba. If we are among those who call God Abba, which is the Arabic word for Father. Actually, this is significant. I'm looking where in Galatians Paul says, if we call upon God is Abba. Yeah, so check this out. Here's Paul, the apostle in the letter to the Galatians. He's writing to mostly non-Jewish converts to the way of Jesus in the first few decades of the Jesus movement. And he can write to them and talk about Galatians 4 verse 6. Hey, listen, because you all are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into our hearts so that we cry, Abba, Father. He's using an airmic word, writing to a community of non-airmic speaking people, hundreds of miles away from Jerusalem, three decades after Jesus. So in other words, this only makes sense as something you would say, if you were writing to a community of people who uttered the Lord's prayer on a regular basis, calling God our Father. In this point is, listen, if we say the our Father prayer, and believe that the Spirit of Jesus is with us, Then the father of Jesus is our father. Does that make sense? Totally. What a random little line in the letter to the Galatians, but it actually only makes sense if you see that the Lord's prayer has spread to these communities and that people are saying the prayer as their prayer. The letter's written in Greek. So when you read it, it's like all of a sudden you're reading an air-mic phrase. An air-mic, yeah, phrasing. And Jesus would have taught the prayer an air-mic. Exactly. Yep. So our father. So even that little beginning makes a statement that shapes you. It's an identity shaping prayer that begins. That's Paul's point here. Yes, that's right.

Yeah. In uttering this prayer, I place myself in the position of Jesus, the son. And so I join the community of sons and daughters around the son as the community of the new

Yeah, the Father of all creation. The source and ground of all that is, that's the one that I'm addressing. So if the Hebrew Bible makes a claim that this is a being who originated and sustains every moment. And when you speak of God as in the skies, it's a way of referring to the Creator not being limited to any place within creation, but the one who's outside of and above. And at the heart of the biblical portrait of this being named Elohim, or God or Yahweh, is that it's a being who simultaneously is the ground and cause of everything that is at every moment, sustaining it. But yet also has allowed creation a certain degree of freedom and independence to run its course with the ideal that creation joins the divine will and partnership and harmony in oneness. Let's with the opening pages of the book we'll story all about. So it's idea that there is a place where God is above all, and in that high and heavenly place, there's the set of ideals, where God's purposes in His power and His will, and His name, His reputation. is all perfectly upheld in this beautiful idea way. That is the transcendent space that is not in the system, it's outside and above and beyond the system. So when you read in Psalm 11 or 12, God's throne is in the skies and from his vantage point, He looks down and sees humans and all their thoughts and purposes and so on.

It's present in everything. It's the only way to account for everything.

Yeah, or is yeah Paul who reflected on this a lot will develop short hand for it to talk about God who was the father of all who was overall and through all and in all Yeah, that's in the letter to the Ephesians. Yeah, but that's it right there. That's it So here we're to the core portrait at the beginning of the story of the Bible, that God who is overall and through all and in all has created something that is genuinely other than God, namely creation, and also as a part of creation of being who is an image of this God, to whom God has given responsibility and a degree of freedom to carry out that responsibility and authority. And those creatures live on the land in Genesis 1. And so the ideal of what Eden is, is the place where heaven and earth are the same place where the human images rule and live and work and steward creation in harmony and oneness with the divine well. So the exile of Adam and Eve from Eden down the mountain into the lowlands becomes this image of the human rulers charting an independent course that they want to establish another type of kingdom. It's contested to space down here on the land in the biblical story. And so none of it would exist without God sustaining the whole thing by his spirit. So that's the way that God is in all and through all. But at the same time, He is also above all, and in that above place, He's outside the system. And there are a set of ideals that all creation will eventually participate in. But at this moment in the story, God's perfect will and reign is only realized in the skies, not on the land. Yeah. That's the story in which Jesus sees himself. That's the only story that makes sense of this prayer. He sees himself within a story where life here on the land is contested space. He sees himself with the story where God has a will and a purpose and ideal that is in the process of being realized on the land, but it's a process that's taking place through humans. And particularly himself, Jesus claimed within the story around the sermon that he was the human who was bringing ushering in a new era of God's kingdom and will here on the land as it is in the skies. So this prayer is both naming what Jesus claims to be doing in the stories around the sermon and the prayer. But it's also an invitation to Jesus followers to see themselves as participating in the arrival of God's will and reign in a particular way. Well, there's many ways Jesus could have opened a prayer, but this particular way of opening situates you right in the thick of the plot conflict.

Yes, God has appointed images to bear responsibility for the world to unite it to the divine well. And right now, we're in a moment in that story where what is done here on the land does not Harmonize with God's will in the skies and you guys good news I'm here to lock heaven and earth together in a way they've never been before and I want you guys to join me and we're gonna be part of this our Father pray with me Jesus invites us our Father in the skies And then he names three aspects of his father's purpose or plan. He describes his father's name, his father's kingdom, or rain, and then his father's will or purpose. And each of those kind of illuminates each other.

So, how would be your name? How does the Earth name?

So, Jesus lives in a story where God's name is at stake. He believes God's name is holy, but somehow God's name is not being treated as or recognizes holy in this moment. Otherwise, you wouldn't need to pray for its holy reputation to be restored.

Yeah, so there's the whole biblical theme of Yahweh's name. The Elohim above all and through all and in all reveals a personal name to a particular people.

Yahweh is the name given to mark the particular Elohim of Israel. So that when Yahweh chooses Abraham out from the nations and then delivers Israel out from Egypt, repeated over a dozen times in that story is I'm doing all of this to Egypt so that Egypt will know that I am Yahweh, so that you Israel will know that I am Yahweh. And then when he brings the Israelites to Mount Sinai, one of the ten commandments is don't carry the name of Yahweh in vain in a futile way. We had a conversation on the podcast with Carbon IMES who helped us unpack this. So in vain means in a way that frustrates the purpose for me attaching my name to you is realites. I've given my name for y'all to carry to bear the name, which is another way of what God also says is y'all are the kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation.

That's right. So, God has chosen to invest His purpose and reputation in humans. Humans fail. It's Genesis 1 through 11. Then he invests His name and reputation in one particular people group.

Yeah. May the unique and one-only status of who you are, Yahweh, and your purpose and your story in the world may that be restored in the eyes of the nations and of Israel to its true place of honor, which presumes that Jesus believes he's in a moment when the name and reputation of Yahweh is not in a place of honor, it's in a place of shame and dishonor. And here, this is a good example of Jesus sees himself within an ongoing story. And this is a huge theme in the prophets and in the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible. Let me just show you a couple examples. These would be examples of parts of the Hebrew Bible that are the groundwork for Jesus saying something like, may your name be recognized solely. Psalm 74 is the Psalm communal Psalm of lament. It begins by saying, Oh God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? So we're in the part of the biblical story where Israel's been unfaithful to the covenant, God's handed them over to their enemies, defeat, shame, exile. What the poem goes on to describe is how the nations have come to Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. They hacked it to pieces with axes. They burned it to ground. It's a smoldering ruin. There's only one real possibility here for what's being described, which is the destruction of the temple by Babylon. And so the poem in verse 10 then concludes, what happened as a result of that? Verse 10, how long oh God will the adversary despise, how long will the enemy show contempt for your name? So the experience of Israel, not being in a place of blessing and honor among the nations, but rather being subjugated, destroyed, exiled, tarnishes, Yahweh's name. And this is core to understanding the story of the Bible. Here's one from Isaiah 52, where Yahweh speaking through the prophet, starting in verse four, he says, that says Yahweh Elohim. My people went down back at the first, into Egypt. to reside there, and then long after that, the Assyrians oppress them without cause. Isaiah is linking the exile in Egypt and the oppression under Pharaoh with centuries later oppression under the empire of Assyria. And there are two moments separated in time, but they share the same meaning in his view of the world. There's five, so therefore, what do I have here? Declares Yahweh. And this is in context of Babylonian exile. Seeing that my people have once again been taken away without cause. That is by Babylon. Those who rule over them howl is depicting like the Babylonians like dogs or wolves yeah like wolves and my name is continually blasphemed all day long with my people in exile therefore my people will know my name and in that day they will know I am the one who's speaking here I am So the restoration from exile and slavery is connected with a new donning or a new restoration of the holiness of Yahweh's name. In other words, Jesus grew up on this literature that trained him to look forward to a time when Israel would be restored And when that happens, Yahweh's name, which is attached to this family, will be restored among the nations. And we won't read this third example because it's super long, but I would encourage any listener to go check out Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel retails the story of Israel as a story of the defiling of my holy name. Yahweh gives a speech and he talks about how through their idolatry and child sacrifice and being taken into exile, they profane to my holy name. But then, y'all was says, in Zika 36, so I had concern for my holy name that Israel defiled, and I'm going to act for the sake of my holy name. I'm going to make my name holy again. It's the most close match to Jesus' words. So Jesus is claiming to be bringing about the thing That the profits hoped for more anticipated and that's what he's praying for right here You could take this line out of its biblical storyline right and it would just be kind of this bland life.

Because the rescue of Israel is itself a subplot of the biblical story of which the main plot is Yahweh. God's name being holy. God's name being holy. Cross all the names. Among all the nations as all humanity represents God as his unique and holy image in the world. And Jesus sees himself first responding to the Israel part of that plot conflict. And that's what this prayer is about.

Yeah. May your name be treated or recognized as one and only one of a kind above all.

That's right. For Jesus, there is only one father who is overall and through all and at all. But the nations don't know that. They don't live like that's true and a lot of Israel doesn't live like that's true. And so Jesus takes it upon himself to announce the arrival of God's reign and purpose in a new way. And when that happens, you get communities of people who are living in a way that brings honor to the name of the creator. I think that was prank for here. This is something to be prayed for every day. May your name be recognized as one and only, which is synonymous with the next two.

So this goes back to our kingdom of God, podcast conversations that the words kingdom, and Hebrew, Malkut, or Mama Hut refer to the activity of reigning primarily. Which always takes place in a location with the people, but it's the activity. Yeah, so may your rule, the best thing which word I can think is rule, may your rule come. The only way you would know God's rule has arrived is if people are living in a certain way. Right? If you live by someone's rule, you live the way that they've asked you to live. Right. So it's this interesting. You're asking for God to do something, but the way you would know that it's happened is by us living a certain way. It's not interesting. It kind of implicates each other. And then the third part is, may your will, may your desire, your purpose be done. Oh, that desire. Oh yeah, desire.

Yeah, totally. Yeah. The first appearance of the word desire or will.

Me too, me too. Yeah, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and there's two Hebrew words, there's synonyms for desire. It was desirable to see with the eyes. It was ta-va, something you long for, and then desirable for gaining wisdom. It's nechmod, which is this, it gets translated as covet in the Ten Commandments. This is the same word. No. Desire covet. covet your neighbor's donkey or wife. You want it for oneself. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

What do you want? Yeah. So, may what God wants come? May what God wants be what happens here on the land?

Yes, yeah. God's desire is to give us life. And Shalom and Tov, goodness, wholeness. Yeah. and that may what God desires be what happens here on the land. And then that, yeah, the woman seeing and desiring, two times over, is this image of, oh, but my desires can be distorted and motivate actions that are then misaligned with the desire of God or a tale of two desires as it were. Yeah, so the restoration of what God desires is also itself about a healing of my own desires, just like God's rule arriving, implicates how I live, a rule by which I live, and then what God desires, implicates a healing of my own desires. Yeah, so this is a prayer for God to act, but inherent within what God does is what we do. And I think that's very much on purpose.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's right. Yeah. So there's all back to the most fundamental insight that I feel like we've spiral back to. Since we started talking over eight years ago. The image of God. This is a story where God's will and rule are accomplished on the land through his images so that what humans do is the way that God's will is done. But what happens when the ones in whom God has invested his reign and desire develop their own contrary desires. And that's the plot conflict of the biblical story. And it's in that conflict that Jesus sees himself. It's the only way that this prayer makes any sense. But what's cool about that is back to the fundamental insight. This was Jesus' prayer that He is inviting us into. Jesus said and acted as if He was here to take a step forward in the resolution of this crisis of desires and two different kingdoms in conflict with each other. And then when he invites us to participate in it, it's teaching me, I think, the formative aspect of this prayer to see every day as like a stage of a contest of desires and a contest of kingdoms. And this day will either be a day where a little bit more of heaven arrives on earth. I can participate in that. Or it's going to be a day where there's more of the contrary kingdom and desire established in the land and I could be a vehicle of that. What's this day going to be about? I think that's how this prayer is meant to shape how we see our lives. Oh man, so intimidating. It's intimidating? Yeah, it's like, if I pray this three times a day, you see every part of your life as like the stage of this cosmic conflict. This is totally how Jesus saw the world. There's that story of where Jesus noticed a woman who had a crooked back and the narrator tells us that it's in Luke's account that she had been walking that way for over 18 years. And what he sees is that woman who's bound by the powers of evil, the death and sickness have a hold on her, and there's a moment here for the kingdom of God to arrive in this woman's body. And for God's desire for this woman to be realized, and he touches her and she's restored. I think that would be the kind of moment that this prayer would have prepared Jesus to like notice and to see and then do something about. Or like Jesus walks by and he sees a tax collector and he just has a sense that like this guy is miserable. And he knows everyone hates him and he probably hates himself so he goes over and he says, follow me. You know, they get to the guy gets up and leaves his whole career and all of his wealth and right. And I think that's like this is it. Like this is the kind of prayer that trains you to see life as a series of opportunities for heaven to invade earth. I want to see my life this way more. I don't think I see it that way enough.

Yeah. Yes. My father's kingdom arrives through suffering and self-giving love. Yes. That's right. The way in which God kingdom arrives has the particular form that Jesus is trying to paint that picture in the rest of the sermon around the prayer. Make God's way be my way. Yeah, humility, through generosity, honoring the image of God in another, even if it is that great inconvenience and cost myself for my community. Yeah. Yeah. The last will be first, first will be last. It's kind of thing. That's how the kingdom comes. There's a universe in this prayer. We just talked about six lines of poetry in the prayer and we could spend a lot more time pondering it. I think. Second half, also begins with the word hour, first plural. Our daily bread, give us today, and so begins three statements about requests for what we need to become agents and vehicles of God's kingdom and will being done in the land. That's what we can explore next.

So the first half is expressing a desire that our Father's reputation and that our Father's desire and his purpose that's done perfectly in the heavenly realm that that would land here on the land. So it's just longing for Earth to look more like heaven. It's about longing.

This is not just an actual request to give me what I need today. It's also shaping me into a kind of person who relates to God in the moment in a certain posture of trust. Jesus wants all of this followers to imagine that their moment by moment existence is not something that they created for themselves, but that they receive as a gift