There is, however, another side to this.  Whether his Name and therefore he himself are respected or despised by the world around, depends very largely on those who, by bearing the name of Christian, are marked out as being his.  That is to be expected.  For example, foreigners learn to respect or despise England from what they see of English people abroad.  It is often they who give England a good name or a bad name.  It is you and I who give Our Lord Jesus Christ a good or bad name, and we do it by what we are and by how we speak and act.

When we pray, “Hallowed be thy Name”, what we are really asking is that by our worship inside the Church and by our life outside it, we may honour God and in so doing cause him to be honoured, or at least respected, by others.

There are three particular ways in which this is done: the first concerns our relationship to Christ; the second our relationship to one another; and the third our Christian witness to those outside the Church.

Our relationship with Christ is really very simple.  On the night before he was crucified, he put it in one sentence, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (NRSV, John 14:15).  And then he went on to give us two clear and specific commandments for us to keep.

The first was as he instituted the Eucharist: “Do this…” he said (NRSV, Luke 22:19).  And so we “Do this” by taking our part in the Eucharist Sunday by Sunday, year in and year out.  It is our perfectly simple fulfilment of his perfectly simple request.  Therein lies the obligation of our weekly worship – the Lord’s own Service on the Lord’s own day, offered in response to the Lord’s own commandment.

The second commandment, which he gave to us that same night, was “…that you love one another, just as I have loved you…” (NRSV, John 13:34) – that is, with a Christ-like love.  And he emphasised how essential that mutual love is to Christian discipleship by adding, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (NRSV, John 13:35).

As we gather together therefore, week by week in his Name, we should be conscious of a mutual goodwill towards one another springing from our mutual love for Christ.  For, as Christ is the focal centre of the Christian religion, so he is also the focal centre of Christian unity and fellowship.  And therefore that unity and fellowship can only become a reality in any Christian community if its members truly love him and for that reason love one another in him.

Before Christ returned to Heaven on Ascension Day he declared to his disciples what was to be both their duty and high privilege.  “…you will be my witnesses…”, he told them (NRSV, Acts 1:8).  And that is still the duty and the privilege of his disciples in every generation.