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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am not a big fan of Tom Hanks, and so I have never seen the movie “Forrest Gump”. But, if I understand correctly, the movie makes use of an old joke about getting into heaven. Although I am also not a big fan of jokes involving getting into heaven, the basic form of this particular bit is that someone at the Pearly Gates is asked God’s Name, among other things, as a sort of test to get into heaven. The person replies that God’s name is “Howard” and subsequently explains his or her knowing that His name is “Howard” from the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father, Who art in heaven, Howard be Thy name …” Of course, that wording is not the wording of the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, rather, we know from the Gospel accounts of St. Matthew and St. Luke that the First Petition of the model prayers given by our Lord is “Hallowed be Thy Name”. Yet, as The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther said of the German version of the Lord’s prayer, so we can say of our King-James English version: this is “rather obscure” and not quite the way we naturally talk (LC III:36). We might better say that the petition asks God to make His Name holy among us, or that we, in word and deed, might praise, extol, and honor His Name. Tonight, as we continue the special services sermon series we began on Ash Wednesday—focusing on the Introduction, seven Petitions, and Conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer in light of the words and deeds of His Passion—we consider the First Petition: “Hallowed by Thy Name”.
“What’s in a name?” William Shakespeare has Juliet rhetorically ask her star-crossed lover Romeo, answering herself “That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet” (act II, scene ii, lines 1-2). Yet, when our Lord draws on Old Testament precedents (Isaiah 29:23; Ezekiel 36:23) and teaches us to pray to our Father in Heaven, “Hallowed by Thy Name”, there is quite a bit in His “Name”! The concept of a name already in Old Testament times included one’s whole existence, nature, character, and reputation; a name was equivalent to whoever bore the name. Whether the Old Testament referred to God by the name “Elohim”, by the name “Yahweh”, or by some other name, His Name involved His whole revelation of Himself in holiness—and it even involved He Himself appearing to and faithfully remaining present with His people.
Those of us who are children—and who is not a child?—those of us who are children may have been told growing up to be careful what we say and do because the family name is on the line. In other words, our words and deeds enhance or detract from our earthly parents’ reputation, and the same is true for the reputation of our Father in heaven: His Name is hallowed, made holy, or consecrated among us by our words and deeds, or by our words and deeds His Name is desecrated, made unholy, or dishallowed. The words and deed of our Lord’s Passion illustrate both the hallowing and dishallowing of God’s Name. For example, when the high priest put Jesus under an oath, Jesus confessed Himself to be the Christ, the Son of God (Matthew 26:63), while Peter put himself under an oath and denied knowing Jesus (Matthew 26:74; Mark 14:71). On the cross, Jesus showed Himself to be that true child of God by praying to His God and Father (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34; Luke 23:46), but, throughout Jesus’s ministry, the words and actions of the Jews led Him to say that they were children of the devil rather than children of Abraham or of God (John 8:37-47). Just as there is a close connection between one’s honoring the First Commandment not to have any other gods in one’s heart and one’s rightly using the name of the Lord one’s God with one’s lips, so there is a close connection between one’s calling out in prayer “Our Father Who art in heaven” and one’s hallowing His Name.
When it comes to us, to our words and deeds, how does God’s Name fare? Are we more like Jesus in our use of it, or are we more like Peter and the Jews? Do we teach His Word in its truth and purity and lead holy lives according to His Word, or do we swear and curse falsely in His Name and live an evil life full of wicked works? Sadly, too often what we say and do dishonors God, for we are sinful by nature, and, by that sinful nature, we deserve nothing but death. Yet, written in Scripture is that repentance and forgiveness of sins in Christ’s Name is proclaimed to all. With this proclamation, God calls us to repent—to turn in sorrow from our sin, to believe God forgives our sin, and to want to do better. So, we repent—we repent of our not hallowing God’s Name as we should, we repent of our dishallowing it, we repent of all our sins and of our sinful natures. When we so repent, then God truly forgives our sin, whatever our sin might be. God the Father forgives our sin for the sake of His Son, Jesus.
Long ago, at many times and in many ways (Hebrews 1:1), God revealed His glory—such as in the pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness and in the cloud of His glory over the Ark of the Covenant, the tabernacle, and the temple. With the name “Elohim”—a plural noun modified with singular adjectives and taking singular verbs—and with the triple use of names in the invocation (the Shema) and the blessing (the Aaronic benediction) of the Old Testament liturgy (Deuteronomy 6:4 and Numbers 6:22-27), the One God in three Persons prepared His people for the greater revelation of the One Name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And, the greatest revelation of the Triune God and His character as Savior and Redeemer, the greatest glory that comes to His Name, is on the cross (John 12:28). The Son in the flesh of the man named “Jesus”, because He saves His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21) was also called “Immanuel”, because in Him God was faithfully present with His people (Matthew 1:23). The Father made that Son holy (John 10:36), and, in His death and resurrection, we who were sinful and unholy are cleansed of our sin and made holy. When we believe in His Name, we have life in His Name (John 1:12; 20:31). And, the invocation and apostolic benediction of the New Testament liturgy remind us of that life (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14)!
God gives us that life and makes us Holy through His Word (John 17:17, 19). Through His Word connected with water in Holy Baptism we are baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In Holy Baptism God makes us His own: His children. As His Children, baptized in His Name, we, who privately confess to a pastor the sins that we know and feel in our hearts, in individual Holy Absolution, have our sins forgiven in that same Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Where those two are gathered in His Name, He is present with them (Matthew 18:18; SA III:iv). Similarly, at this altar and its rail, as we are “gathered in the Name and the remembrance of Jesus” (Lutheran Worship, prayer #162, p.149), in Holy Communion He is faithfully present with us to forgive us with bread that is His body and wine that is His blood. We call out to Him, “Hosanna!” (that is, “Save us!”), He comes to us in the Name of the Lord, and thereby He brings forth our praise (Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:9, 10; Luke 19:38; John 12:13; confer Matthew 23:39; Luke 13:35). Through His Word and Sacrament, He forgives our sins of misusing His Name, He forgives our sins of not using His Name as we ought, He forgives whatever other sins we commit, and He even forgives our sinful natures themselves.
As Jesus prayed on the night in which He was betrayed, He manifests or declares God’s Name to us and keeps us in that Name (John 17:6, 11, 12, 26). In spite of the desecration of God’s Name and sin’s blasphemy, God’s Name is of itself still holy, as we will sing with Mary in the Magnificat in a few moments (Luke 1:49). God Himself reveals His Name to us as holy, and then He also reveals His Name as holy among us and so through us to others. Many of those others will hate us on account of that Holy Name, as Jesus Himself prophesied (Matthew 24:9; Mark 13:13; Luke 21:12, 17). And, we will continue to misuse the Name or fail to use it as we should, but such cannot keep us out of heaven, like the sort of “test” so common in popular jokes. No, we live each and every day in the forgiveness we receive by calling on that Name, and so we walk in the holy Name of the Lord our God forever and ever (1 Corinthians 1:2; 6:11; Micah 4:5).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +