Do You Hear? Series

Do you hear what I hear?

Noel Regney was born in France in 1920. He studied music in conservatories in both Paris, France and Strasbourg, Germany. Though being French, he was drafted into the Nazi army during WWII. He did not like the what the party stood for and secretly worked as a part of the French resistance. He would provide valuable information to the resistance fighters. In one particularly difficult situation, he was called to lead a some German soldiers into a trap that was set by the resistance. During that encounter, he ended up wounded by the French, some think intentionally, in order to cover up any suspicion that he had knowledge of the attack. Eventually he defected back to France and lived in seclusion until the end of the war. The time in the war would weigh heavy on him for years.

In the early 50s he moved to Manhattan and began to write music for a variety of artists, putting his conservatory training to good use.

In the fall of 1962, the Soviet Union and the United States were on the brink of another war in a conflict known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The dread of nuclear war brought back bitter memories for Regney - especially as Christmas was on the horizon. The peace that the season promised was overshadowed by the sense of dread and doom that he felt.

As he walked through New York city one day, he noticed some moms strolling through town with their children. The joy on the children’s faces immediately changed his mood and filled his mind with poetry.

He went home and began to pen the lyrics to the famous song “Do you hear what I hear?”. He and his wife collaborated together to put music to the lyrics.

Though it has become known as a famous Christmas song, it was initially intended as a B side song of an album as a plea for peace in the face of the war. He seemed to be inviting people to hear the joys of peace in the present moment. Later that fall the song was recorded by the Harry Simeon Chorale. While hundreds of other artists have recorded this plea for peace, Bing Crosby’s rendition is likely the most well known.

Who would hear this plea? Frankly millions have. How would they respond? While the missile crisis of 1962 eventually ended, it’s not likely that this song was the catalyst, though their intentions were good.

The question is, when we hear the good news, how will we respond? Regney’s call to peace is as appropriate today as it was then. The Gospel’s call to peace - even more so!

Hearing is useless without some sort of a response, and that’s what the passage we’re considering today is all about.

Open your bibles to Luke 8. As we read earlier, we’ll begin in verse 5.

Last week, we found Jesus in the home of a Pharisee where he forgave a sinful woman. He then continued to travel around and teach - gathering crowds of men and women. As they moved closer to listen, Jesus told them a parable.

Luke 8:5–8 ESV

“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Through his teaching with parables or mini- stories Jesus teaches in a way that allows a whole variety of people to listen and learn at different levels.

This topic of hearing is a theme that gets repeated throughout Luke’s gospel and is concentrated in this chapter. In this parable, Jesus is bringing up the topic hearing as he both shares the parable and explains it. What we learn is that hearing does several things.

First of all,

Hearing presents an opportunity (4-15)

Whenever we hear something, we have an opportunity to do something with that information. We have an opportunity to respond.

So in Jesus’ parable, the sower is liberally sowing the seed of the word of God. Spreading it far and wide.

Before we dive into the soils, I do think it’s important to reflect on “the word of God.” What is that? What does it entail?

The written word - the bible that you have in your hand is the inspired word of God. Sometimes this is referred to as “Special Revelation” - the specific things that God has revealed about himself and his work in the world, his promises about the future. From cover to cover, this is the seed, the word of God.