For the second Sunday in the Lord’s Prayer sermon series, Rev. Cari focussed in on the phrase, “Hallowed Be Your Name” and jumped off from two different Biblical texts for this teaching sermon.

Beginning with a section of Leviticus 19, from the “holiness code” she examined the word “hallowed” or holy. This quietly revolutionary text outlines the many ways in which the people of Israel were to live, based on their identity as God’s people.

She then shifted over to Exodus 3, the story of the call of Moses, in which the name of God is disclosed. Rev. Cari follows John Dominic Crossan in suggesting that in fact, God’s ineffable name (the tetragrammaton, as it is called) is always paired with a name that is more “graspable” by humans.

In this phrase of Jesus’ prayer, we meet the unnameable God, and as we recognize God’s holy, saving love and justice, our response is both awe and action. Thus the prayer begins to do its formative (and transformative) work in us.