Teaching the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer is a fun and challenging
exercise whether you’re discussing the matter with adults or your 7-year-old
daughter. This is especially true when you get to words like ‘hallowed’. Hallowed is just not a word that one
hears in 2016.
To help break down the concept of what it means to hallow God’s name,
let me tell you a brief story. In 2004, I went to Africa for the first time.
Our group from Houston Baptist University was doing AIDS education in various high
schools in Swaziland. At that point, Swaziland had the highest AIDS prevalence
rate in the world. It was heartbreaking.
One day, we had finished our daily presentations
and were outside talking with the students. I remember one girl telling me how
desperately she wanted to go to America. I asked her why, and what she said
amazed me.
The picture of America she described seemed like it had been taken right
out of a Britney Spears video. (I realize that is a dated reference, but this
story occurred in 2004.) If you want America to have a good name with
outsiders, and they have any semblance of a moral compass, you probably should
keep them away from Britney Spears videos.
Anyway, I tried to tell her that America as a whole wasn’t like that,
but she wouldn’t believe me. Even though America’s name was soiled in toxic waste in her mind, the depravity was appealing to her. Heartbreak upon
heartbreak.
It made
me think of Paul’s word to the Corinthians that Christians, “are ambassadors for
Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us (2 Corinthians 5:20).”
Before our team from HBU came to her school, those music videos were the
only representation of America that girl had ever seen. It was as if America
was making its appeal through Britney. However, far more than being
representatives of the country of America, our team from HBU was there as
ambassadors for the kingdom and family of God.
A kingdom whose laws and values are far richer than those of America. A
kingdom whose King is infinitely better than any ruler who has sat in the White
house. A kingdom whose citizens don’t seek first financial security and
physical safety, but rather the King’s glory in every aspect of their lives. A
kingdom that keeps growing because the name/character of the King is mirrored
by His children.
What does it mean for us to hallow God’s name? Cyprian says it well.
When we call God Father, we ought to act as God’s
children; so that in the measure in which we find pleasure in considering God
as a Father, He might also be able to find pleasure in us. Let us converse as
temples of God, that it may be plain that God dwells in us. … “You are not your
own; for you are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear about God in your
body.” After this we say, “Hallowed be Thy name;” not that we wish for God that
He may be hallowed by our prayers, but that we beseech of Him that His name may
be hallowed in us. … Because He says, “Be holy, even as I am holy,” we ask and
entreat, that we who were sanctified in baptism may continue in that which we
have begun to be. And this we daily pray for; for we have need of daily
sanctification. – Cyprian 250CE, Volume 5, p. 787-788 [CD-ROM]
If we are God's children, we should seek to reflect our Father more and more purely so the world will love Him more than itself.
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