Lord’s Prayer: Part 2 Our Father in Heaven

The first line of the Lord’s Prayer says God is our father, He is in Heaven and His name is holy.

Matthew 6 v 9

Our Father in Heaven, Holy is Your Name.

The prayer starts by stating God is a father. This is a key concept in Christian theology. Our modern Western culture has a different framework to fatherhood compared to the ancient one.

In more traditional times, the father was the head of the household. He made the key decisions for the family. He had to give his blessing on whom his children would married. He had the ultimate authority in the family. Nowadays, most of these roles are reduced or even redundant in many families.

God as a father means He has all-authority over His Creation. He has the final say.

God being a Father also means He is masculine. In some Western theological thought, this is controversial. There tends to be push back from the feminist quarters, emphasising that God is also feminine or even non-gendered.

The relationship between the masculine and feminine is very specific in ancient myths.  The masculine acts upon the feminine and the feminine is in a position to receives. So symbolically, the masculine God acts upon the feminine Creation.

If God is feminine, and Creation was masculine, then we would act upon God and change Him according to our desires. He would submit to us and we would lead Him. This is why I think modern pagan religions see the ultimate deity as the Mother goddess. By definition, it makes the worshipper take the masculine role, and puts them into the position of control, manipulating the creator to do their bidding.

If God and Creation are of equal standing, then God would not be in the position to form Creation in the first place, nor maintain it.

The prayer also says God the Father is in Heaven. This gives the impression that He is located in one place. Though we know that God the Father is not part of Creation, as He was before all things.

Psalm 90 v 2

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Though according to the Lord’s Prayer, He also inhabits it.

I would say the understanding of Heaven is the key issue here. Later in Scripture, we read St Paul links the Heavens and Earth to the Unseen and Seen. If we changed the word Heaven to Unseen place in the prayer, it makes more sense to our modern minds.

Our Father in the unseen place, holy is Your Name.

What does it mean that God is holy? Holiness is in opposition to unholiness.

Leviticus 11 v 44

I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.

God commands that we be holy. In the Old Testament it meant the Israelites and Jews needed to follow a strict code to avoid defilement. A person who was unholy was unable to approach God or be amongst his ‘holy people’. We read of instances in the Bible where people approached God or things associated with Him and died due to their state of unholiness.

In Christianity, God’s requirement for holiness still stands. Though through humbling ourselves, repentance and Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection, we can come to God.

Hebrews 4 v 16

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

The final part of the first line of the Prayer says that God’s name is holy. This seems strange that it is God’s Name, and not simply God. Shouldn’t it read, ‘You are Holy’, not ‘Your name is Holy’.

In Genesis 4, we read people began to call on the Name of the Lord.

Genesis 4 v 26

And to Seth also a son was born, and he called him Enosh. At that time men began to call upon the name of the LORD.

Why didn’t they just call on God? Why on His Name? The Name of the Lord is personified later in scripture and is understood by some Christians to be Christ.

Another way to look at this is His Name represents His action in Creation. The first line of the prayer would therefore imply that God’s action is holy, good and perfect.

If you want to learn more about the personification of the Name of the Lord, you can read it here:

This first line sets the order for the rest of the prayer. God is our father, and He is above us in the hierarchy of existence. As He holds the highest place, He is holy. As we recognise His position over all things, then we are blessed.

Below is a paywall. Here I discuss more controversial issues. This time I talk about how the first line of the Lord’s Prayer has been reimagined for our modern world and how holiness is not inclusive.