The Father, His Heaven, and His Name

Mat 6:9 Therefore you should pray like this: Our Father who is in heaven, Holy is your name.

There are enough ideas in this one line to fill a book.

First, we have the idea that God is our Father. We are (in some way) like God, and he, like any parent, wants us to mature to be even more like Him. We have written about this idea extensively in other posts (one here). This is one of Christ's central messages, but one which mainstream Christianity doesn't really discuss in detail.

If God is all powerful and good, why does he allow evil and suffering in the world? If you can see the world as a father, you know why. Without pain and suffering, there is no learning and growth. If our knowledge was perfect, we would have no free will. If our decisions didn't have consequences, our choices would be meaningless. God allows suffering so that we can grow and become more like Him. A life of pure bliss where our decisions were meaningless and we had nothing to learn would make us more like a vegetable. Would any parent put their child on a life-long heroin IV so that the child would experience nothing but pleasure? In doing so, that parent would be depriving the child of living a life. And what is more precious than the challenge of life?

The idea that there is a heaven is also powerful. Earth is different than heaven because God is hidden here. Only that fact that God is hidden gives us freedom of choice. The continual presence of an all-knowing God allows you less freedom that a child has when he or she is with a parent. By creating earth, God lets us go out on our own and make our own decisions. Without that separation, we could never make mistakes and learn. However, even is more than a separation, it is a promise of reunion.

Finally, we have the most difficult line I have found in the Gospels. "Holy" or "hallowed" is your name. The Greek word use is hagiazo, from hagos, meaning that which creates awe or more simply, an awful thing. Hagiazo generally means "devoted to the gods." In a good sense, this can mean holy or sacred, but it also mean accursed. Another way to think about this word is that it describes something set apart only for God. This is why many devote people won't write or speak the name of J-h-v-.

Why is God's name set apart, both holy and cursed?

To understand this, we have to wonder at the meaning of God's name. As you might imagine, I am more interested in meaning than I am pronunciation or spelling. The name used in the Bible, however you say it, has a specific meaning. It means "the Existing One." It is taken from God's first words to Moses, "I am that am." Now, we can take this name to mean "the only God that really exists." We can think of it more deeply as, "the only Existing One." In this version, God is the only thing that really exists and everything else is but a reflection of God's existence.

However, my personal interpretation is that God is the thing that "exists" in the sense that God is stable. Everything else is in a state of becoming. God is the only form of being. The rest of the universe (including heaven, interestingly enough) is becoming.

This idea brings us back to the fatherhood of God and the nature of heaven and earth.