Title: GOD’S NAME—REGISTERED TRADEMARK

Focus: God’s name is like a registered trademark in the Lord’s prayer; we must hallow that name.

Function: To encourage the people to know the Lord by contemplating and believing his works, and by praising him for his works and being.

Text: Jeremiah 9:23,24

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 47

 

INTRODUCTION

            Microsoft Windows is a brand name. So are IBM, and GM, and Ford, and Star Bucks. Brand names are names of products and organizations that are registered with a government agency as trademarks. Products and organizations that have registered trademarks enjoy protection by the law.

 

No one may take advantage of a registered trademark. I may not, for example, start my own coffee shop and call it a Star Bucks. If I do, I am taking advantage of the reputation or name established by the Star Bucks organization. And when I do so, I open myself up for a lawsuit. You and I must honor products and organizations that have a registered trademark.

 

Perhaps it’s helpful to think of God’s name as a registered trademark. God has been around for a long time, in fact, he is from everlasting to everlasting. He has no beginning and no end. Ever since the creation of the world, God has been making a name for himself; his reputation is enormous. And no one may infringe upon or take advantage of God’s reputation. That’s why God said to Moses and the Israelites: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” And that’s why the Lord Jesus has taught us to pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”

Think of God’s name, then, as a registered trademark in the Lord’s prayer. And then, do not violate, use in vain, or disdain that name. Rather, hallow—that is, consecrate, honor, bless, revere, worship or speak highly of the name of God.

 

THE FIRST PETITION

            The first request that the Lord Jesus teaches us to offer to our heavenly Father is the petition: “hallowed be your name.” This is important to notice because the name of our heavenly Father is of the highest order. It ranks as Numero Uno—Number One. One commentator of the H.C. (H. Veldkamp) pointed out that there are many burning desires in our hearts--desires for ourselves, our children, our church, and so on. But Jesus teaches us that we, as his disciples, must re-arrange our desires in such a way that the name of our heavenly Father is first and foremost. Our highest desire must be to know God and to bless his holy name. For that’s what it means to pray, “Hallowed by your name.” The first order of my life each day must be to bless and revere the name of our heavenly Father. It’s a tall order, I know. But the Master tells us so.

 

            At first sight, praying that God’s name may be “hallowed,” may seem a bit strange. After all, we can’t make God’s name holy or holier than it already is. Just as we can’t regulate the temperature of the sun, nor control its radiation of light, so we can’t increase the brilliance or reputation or holiness of God’s name. But what we can do is this: we can acknowledge or uphold God’s name and fame. To “hallow” means to acknowledge as holy; it means to praise, to acclaim, or to bless the name of God.

The opposite of “to hallow” is to desecrate or to bring in disrepute God’s name. How do we bring dishonor to God’s name? By ridicule, mockery, cursing, speaking ill of God’s works; and by neglecting, or ignoring, or by being silent about God’s reputation. Just as dark thunderclouds obscure the light of the sun, so the thunderclouds of our sins obscure the name of God.

 

So when we pray “hallowed be your name,” we are praying against sinful thoughts and deeds, and we are praying for the awesome reputation of God to become more and more widespread. In essence, says the Catechism, we pray: “Help us to really know you (O Lord), to bless, worship, and praise you for all your works and for all that shines forth from them….”

 

We are not dealing here with a pious wish offered to our heavenly Father; anyone who earnestly prays “hallowed be your name,” recognizes that he must do something. The first petition in the Lord’s prayer is a call for action on our part. She who prays “hallowed be your name,” is to arrange her life in such a way that God is glorified through her actions and words.

 

The first petition in the Lord’s prayer calls us to be or to live for the praise of God’s glory. The purpose of our lives must line up with the fame of God’s name. This is why the Catechism paraphrases the first petition by praying: “Help us to really know you, to bless, worship and praise you for all your works and for all that shines forth from them….”

 

How do we really know God? To begin with, we must acknowledge that by ourselves we can’t really know God. It takes initiative by God. That’s why we pray: “Help us to really know you.” And God does help us by revealing himself in two books: there is the book of creation, where we can “read” his glory shining forth from all that he has made. And there is the book of holy Scripture. The Belgic Confession in Article 2 states so beautifully the means by which we may know God:

First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: his eternal power and his divinity….Second, he makes himself known to us more openly by his holy and divine Word, as much as we need in this life, for his glory and for the salvation of his own.

 

            But more needs to be said: to really know God also calls for a heart knowledge or response—a response of love, and obedience, and wondrous admiration for our Creator and Savior. That response is possible because God has given us his Holy Spirit to fellowship with him. It is the Holy Spirit within us who helps us to really know God, that is, to bless, worship, and praise God for all his works and for all that shines forth from them. It is also the Holy Spirit who directs “all our living—what we think, say, and do—so that God’s name will never be blasphemed because of us but always honored and praised.”

 

            Some people are experts or scholars of the Bible; they can quote texts and verses like no one else; they blow you away with their vast knowledge. But they do not necessarily know the Lord: their relationship with God is dubious; their lifestyle reflects unbelief; and their attitude toward God is empty of love or devotion.

 

            Others have no use for God’s Word; they enjoy contemplating nature. That’s where they meet God, so they say. But nature only reflects God’s glory—it cannot and does not bring us into a relationship with the Father, where we bless him and know him for who he is, and for what he has done for us in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. No, we need the Holy Spirit to enter the fellowship circle of the Triune God. Only then can we bless, worship, and praise him from the heart and hallow his holy name.

 

            Clearly, God’s name is like a registered trademark in the Lord’s prayer. We may not tinker with that name; we may not use it in vain. Rather, followers of Jesus must bless, worship, and praise the name and fame of our heavenly Father.

 

GOD’S CALL

            The prophet Jeremiah lived in a very tumultuous period of Israel’s history. The Middle East in those days was one boiling kettle, besieged and threatened by the Babylonian empire with its seat of power in Baghdad. Jeremiah echoed the voice of God to Israel and called them to put their faith in God and to repent from their evil ways.

 

            Jeremiah is a charismatic and dramatic figure: Famous are his laments: (9:1) “Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.” Or listen to this: “Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people.” Clearly, Jeremiah is a weeping prophet, known for his laments. But have you ever considered Jeremiah’s warnings?

 

            Dreadful are Jeremiah’s warnings as he presents himself as the mouthpiece of God. Listen: “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.” The weeping prophet knows how to sound the alarm.

 

He also knows how to teach his people. For clear and crisp are Jeremiah’s instructions from the Lord: “’Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the Lord.”

 

In this text, we notice that

 

·        The Lord wants to be known

by his people. “Let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me….” This knowledge involves a familiarity with God’s ways, with God’s dealings with his people. This is relational knowledge—a knowledge that deals with the heart, where the desires of love and respect, awe and reverence for God, must rise to the top and govern our lives. The knowledge that God looks for is the posture of prayer and praise, the posture of bended knees and faithful service, whereby we acknowledge that God is the Lord. In this passage we also notice that

 

·        The Lord is known by his

works.

Listen: “…let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth….” Do you want to know the Lord and acknowledge or honor him as the living God? Then consider his works, his deeds. Jeremiah also teaches us in this text that

 

·        To know the Lord—and

thus to hallow or revere his name—means to imitate the Lord in his works and ways. You see, the kindness, justice and righteousness that the Lord displays in his works are actions that the Lord seeks from us; they are actions that bring delight to the Lord.  Listen once more to the text (but now using the paraphrased translation of Eugene Peterson in The Message, The Bible in Contemporary Language)

“Don’t let the wise brag of their wisdom. Don’t let heroes brag of their exploits. Don’t let the rich brag of their riches. If you brag, brag of this and this only: That you understand and know me. I’m God, and I act in loyal love. I do what’s right and set things right and fair, and delight in those who do the same things. These are my trademarks.”

 

            As Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,” think of God’s name as a registered trademark. Revere and bless, praise and uphold that name, for God himself is wrapped up in his name. We are to hallow him and his name.

 

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.