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"Pray then in this
way: 'Our Father, who is 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 also have
forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into
temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is
the Kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.'"
(Matthew 6.9-13)
Hallowed Be Your
Name
In a profane world, holiness
seems archaic or quaint at best; a Puritan ideal;
a relic from medieval monasticism; a certain sign
of naivete. If it's not irreverent, it must be
irrelevant. Holiness smacks of exclusivity and
judgmentalism in a culture where nothing is
sacred.
However, if Christian spirituality
neglects the pursuit of holiness, it
fails entirely.
Unless our desire for the Divine recognizes
and responds to His holiness, we simply create a god
in our own image with which we
superficially console our deepest yearnings. Such a god
deceives and betrays us, leaving us
self-absorbed, self-justified, and increasingly self-deluded.
The holiness of "our Father" delivers us
from misguided mysticism.
In hallowing His name we acknowledge that His
holiness enables our fulfillment. "Our Father", when
isolated from holiness degenerates into fair-weather and
frothy friendship. Without holiness, we assess His
fatherliness in purely human terms and the
outcome invariably reduces Him to an acceptable
version of ourselves.
His
holiness lifts us beyond the mire of our human
experience, if we dare pursue such genuine
liberation. His holiness highlights the
short-sightedness of secularism, the poverty of profanity, and
the futility of immorality. When we hallow His name,
He confronts everything destructive and poisonous
within us.
His holiness refuses to
ignore our un
holiness. Perhaps therein
lies the explanation for our reluctance to pray this phrase
with our hearts. While our lips
mouth the words, our hearts hesitate at the implications
and potential costs.
We cannot yearn for His
holiness to pervade the world -- and our inner
world -- and simultaneously be complacent about
our current condition. Indeed, what we declare of Him
He desires for us, precisely.
"Hallowed be Your
name."
The phrase expresses
our commitment to make the Holy One central in our
lives. It slips from our lips as a statement of
intent, not wishful thinking. May it be
so.
In
HOPE -
David | 
