Hallowed be Thy Name.  Matthew 6:9

Hallowed – Have you ever asked what it means to “hallow” His name?  Our first intuition is that it must have something to do with honoring, like the second Commandment.  But “hallow” is not a familiar word anymore.  Perhaps is never was.  Today we are left with this nebulous, uncomfortable feeling that there must be something very important here.  We just don’t quite know what it is.

The deepest meanings of this blessing for God (did you realize that you are blessing God?) would take us into the mysteries of the creation and the Creator.  Perhaps it is enough for now to just open a tiny crack in the universe, to peak at only one small part of this profound bit of theology.

The word is hagiastheto in Matthew.  Of course, this isn’t the word Jesus used.  Jesus didn’t teach in Greek.  He spoke Hebrew.  So Jesus probably used the word qadash.  Whatever Jesus intended is to be found in the Hebrew meaning of qadash.  Time to go word hunting.

After a lot of grammatical research, we come to the following conclusion.  Hallowing is the petition that God’s name reveals itself to be holy.  This is the process of letting God’s glory be revealed in and through His creation.  Normally we would expect this process of sanctification to mean removing what must be hallowed from the ordinary use in life.  Many religious rituals surround this very idea – making some ordinary element sacred through a spiritual “setting apart”.  For example, bread and wine are sanctified when our religious ritual elevates them in the celebration of the Eucharist, in communion.  But hallowing God’s name is a bit deeper than this.

It is certainly true that God’s name must be honored and kept sacred.  That is the intent of the second commandment.  The Jews live in respectful concern over the misappropriation of God’s name even today.  God’s name is special, sacred and unlike any other name.

But there is more.  In ancient near-eastern cultures, a name was far more than an arbitrary label designating something or someone.  A name was the symbolic representation of the essential character of a person.  When I pray “Hallowed be thy name” I am invoking a blessing on the name of God that requires His essential character be made sacred.  I am magnifying and glorifying who He is.

What does the name of God reveal as His essential character?  For that, we need to turn to Exodus 4.  God reveals the essential character of His name to Moses.  It is the name of Being.  God says that His name means, “I am that I am” or “I am He who exists.”  Actually, the translation of haya is still debated.  But it revolves around the fundamental idea of Being.  God’s name is the summary of what is. 

In all of creation, nothing, not one single thing, exists on its own.  Everything that is depends on the existence of something else.  You would not be unless your parents existed.  Life on this planet wouldn’t exist unless the sun existed.  Animals would not exist unless there was vegetation.  Vegetation wouldn’t exist without chlorophyll.  All matter depends on previous matter, back and back through time.  We call this a contingent universe.  Its very existence depends on something prior.  That is the fundamental assumption of the Law of Cause and Effect.

But God’s name contains the implication that God is absolutely.  He has no dependency.  Everything that is depends on God, both for its creation and its continuing existence.  This is why Paul says, “in Him we live and move and have our being”.  But God is not like anything else.  God exists unconditionally.

So, what we discover is that hallowing not only expresses a blessing to let God be glorified, it also contains the idea that God is to be glorified in all His actions.  Part of the glorification of God is to see Him glorified in everything that exists.

Now for that little peek into the universe.  What this means is that when I pray, “Hallowed be thy name”, I am asking that God’s essential being of holiness be revealed in all that expresses who He is – and that means that everything should shout out God’s holiness.  My prayer is the prayer that all of creation will be returned to the place where God is glorified in its display.  My prayer says that the moment I utter these words, I am dedicating everything I am, every relationship I have, every connection between me and all of His creation, to His glorification and magnification.  To hallow His name is to make everything sacred!

The wall between the sacred and the profane just came tumbling down.  God alone is the reason behind every existing thing.  And every existing thing is intended to fulfill the purpose of glorifying Him and revealing His holiness.  My compartmentalized life must end.  God stands behind all my actions, decisions, thoughts and words.  To hallow Him is to consecrate all to Him.  From the blades of grass in my lawn to the most distant star, from the friendship with my neighbor to the need of my enemy, all must become a vehicle for His glory.

Hallowed be thy name.

 Topical Index:  hallowed, sanctify, name, Matthew 6:9, hagiastheto, qadash, contingent