IN THE PREVIOUS post, I suggested that we citizens of the modern world may not take names quite as seriously as names are taken in the Bible. But as with most generalizations, that’s only a partial truth (and yes, I’m aware that I just made another generalization — just go with it). In some cultures, for example, not unlike the Montagues and Capulets of Shakespearean fame, there are still blood feuds between clans to defend the honor of a family’s name.

And there are more mundane examples, like the various forms of name-dropping in which we hope to impress people with the use of someone else’s name and reputation. We can do it at a party: “As I was saying to so-and-so yesterday…” We do it with letters of recommendation, in which it’s not only the content of the letter but the signature at the bottom that matters. And we do it when authors ask for endorsements on their books, hoping that potential readers will think, “Well, if so-and-so likes it, it must be good.”

Or think about the rules we’ve internalized about when you’re permitted to call someone by their first name. If names are only labels, then anyone should be able to do it, right? But it’s not that simple. There are cultural standards of propriety that recognize differences in social status.

This is a perennial issue between me and my students, who come from a variety of cultural backgrounds from around the globe. Even though I’m very informal with them (you know, I’m from California?), some students would never dare to call me “Cameron” — or heaven forbid, “Cam”! — and would look with horror upon those who did. He’s your professor! And he’s old enough to be your father. Don’t you have any respect? These students feel compelled to call me “Doctor” or “Professor,” knowing that their parents would be upset with them if they didn’t.

So, then, how should we address the God of the universe? And with what attitude?

THINK BACK TO the story in Exodus 3, in which God reveals himself for the first time to Moses. He gets Moses’ attention with a burning bush and then calls out to him, warning him to take off his sandals, because the ground itself is holy. All of this, no doubt, would have knocked Moses for a loop; since when do bushes catch fire without burning up…and then talk to you?

Moses’ reaction when God identifies himself is perfectly understandable:

Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. (Exod 3:6, NIV)

Of course Moses was afraid; wouldn’t you be? And when God commissions him to be the one to lead his people out of Egypt, Moses resists: Who, me? You’ve got to be kidding. God reassures Moses that he will be with him, but Moses is still reluctant. He seems worried that the Israelites might not accept his leadership. What if they ask me for your name? he objects. What am I supposed to say? Patiently, God responds:

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (vs. 14)

And this, God tells Moses, “is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation” (vs. 15). It’s the name that, in reverence, English translations render instead as “the LORD” in all caps. It’s the name that many pious Jews consider too holy, too sacred to say out loud, calling God ha-shem instead — Hebrew for “the name.”

And it’s the name that the Israelites would later carry into battle against other nations, as they journeyed from Egypt to the Promised Land. I think here of what Rahab said to the spies Joshua secretly sent into Jericho before leading the people across the Jordan River. According to Rahab, Israel’s God already had quite the reputation there:

I know that the LORD has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. (Josh 2:10-12)

Rahab repeatedly speaks of her people’s terror of this God, whom she calls by name three times. And she uses the name again a fourth time as she asks the spies to swear that she and her family would be spared. Think about it. She doesn’t ask them to swear by the name of one of her gods; she asks them to swear by the name of their God. Given the news she had already heard, she knew that this name, this God, was to be feared.

God is holy. His name stands in for who he is, and is to be treated with appropriate reverence. By the time of Joshua, this had already been enshrined in the third of the Ten Commandments:

You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. (Exod 20:7)

As we’ve seen in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus may have been speaking to the third commandment when he told his hearers not to make oaths using the name of God or anything under his sovereignty. Again, it’s not that such oaths themselves were forbidden. The problem was that people were using pious language to sound trustworthy and then not doing what they promised. To Jesus, this amounted to a misuse of God’s name.

By contrast, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray “hallowed be your name” (Matt 6:9). There are two ways we might read this. It’s either a prayer for God to “uphold the holiness of [his own] name” as the Common English Bible translates it, or a more general prayer that God’s name would be “revered as holy” as the New Revised Standard Version has it. The name, as a sequence of sounds or of symbols on a page, is not holy in itself; but the name is inseparable from the person of God, who is holy, sacred, set apart.

Those who are truly righteous don’t perform religious acts in order to get glory for themselves; they live in a way that will prompt others to give glory to God. And when such people pray, they do so with the awareness that God’s name is worthy of all honor because God is the Holy One. This is an embodiment of the kingdom of heaven. Moreover, as we’ll see, Jesus teaches his disciples to explicitly pray that God’s kingdom would come.