“Hallowing God’s Name is God’s Business. Our Business is to Pray”
Is our business as Christians to make God’s name holy?
No and yes. And the “No” needs to come first.
Here is a long quote from Karl Barth that sets out what we must be doing. Barth is discussing the words addressed to God “hallowed by your name” in the Lord’s Prayer.
“It is clear that we pray in the midst of our present in which God’s name is not hallowed but is desecrated in the world and even in the church and our own lives as Christians by the division which dominates all things. But now we are not abandoned to the scandal and evil of this division nor thrown back on our own resources. We are not directed either to sink into a hopeless silence or assault the clouded and covered heavens with hysterical cries of protest and distress and appeals for help. Jesus Christ lived once, but not only once. As the one who lived once, he also lives today, even in this confused present of ours. As he forbids us to come to terms with our confusion, he does not leave us stuck in our impasse in relation to it, but shows us the way out by ordering us to turn to God with the request that he himself will take in hand the sanctifying of his name.” (Karl Barth, The Christian Life, translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017), p. 237. Italics mine.)
I don’t always (ever?) entirely understand Barth, but I think what he is saying is this: Only God can make God’s name holy. The world won’t and the church can’t. In fact, the church can and does frequently bring shame on the name of God. We do so by our inconsistent behavior—as well as by venting our spleen and calling it speaking the truth.
So, if God’s name is to be holy, it must be God who does it. However, we are given the task of praying that God will do precisely that. And as we take the posture of humility and pray, perhaps we will also find that we do a better job of living holier, more consistent lives—even in this confused present.
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