Do You Hear What I Hear?

Do You Hear What I Hear?

(Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72; Matthew 2:1-12)

10:30 am, Sunday, Jan 6, 2013; Windsor UBC; J G White

Today, the Christian festival of Christmas ends.  The twelve days are done, it is Epiphany!  It is the celebration of the Magi seeking and finding Jesus.  It is time to praise God for shining as a Light for all peoples everywhere. 

The story of the Magi from Matthew 2 is a biblical tale that catches the imagination.  The premise is this amazing birth of the Son of God, of course.  These magi from somewhere – Persia likely – are tracking down this new Jewish King.  Are they astrologers?  They are definitely not of the Hebrew religion.  Are they kings?  The Old Testament poetry of Isaiah 60 and Psalm 72 suggests this to us.  There is ancient Middle-Eastern politics in this narrative.

Why did they bring gold, and frankincense, and myrrh?  People’s sanctified imaginations have developed many legends about this through the centuries.  If you are a geologist, or you like jewelry, the gold catches your attention.  If you are a botanist the frankincense and myrrh make you curious. 

And the star that leads them.  It’s but one of their guides.  It’s the beautiful, mysterious, celestial element that is so amazing and unexplainable.          

                             A star, a star

Dancing in the night

With a tail as big as a kite

Humanity’s faith and walk with God is told in such stories.  What a blessing that we have the Bible, and these amazing narratives.  Oh, how we can take it for granted!  And, oh, how we need stories today.  Our movies and TV programs, video games and all, express the power of story – true and fictional – today.

So what is our Faith?  Is it facts that can be explained and believed?  Is it a story, a true story, of God and God’s people?

American Author Frederick Buechner has written, A Christian is one who points to Christ and says, ‘I can’t prove a thing, but there’s something about his eyes and his voice.  There’s something about the way he carries his head, his hands, his cross – the way he carries me.’ 

I want to finish quoting a song I mentioned a moment ago.  It is an expression of today’s story.

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy

Do you hear what I hear

Ringing through the sky shepherd boy

Do you hear what I hear

A song, a song

High above the tree

With a voice as big as the sea

With a voice as big as the sea

Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king

Do you know what I know

In your palace wall mighty king

Do you know what I know

A child, a child

Shivers in the cold

Let us bring him silver and gold

Let us bring him silver and gold

Said the king to the people everywhere

Listen to what I say

Pray for peace people everywhere

Listen to what I say

The child, the child

Sleeping in the night

He will bring us goodness and light

He will bring us goodness and light

"Do You Hear What I Hear?" is a Christmas song written in October 1962 with lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne. The pair were married at the time, and wrote it as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Does that simple part of the story of the song change it for you?  Stories change things for us.

Well, a new year dawns.  It is time to listen to the story; the story of Christ, God in our world.  Now is the right time, today is the day of salvation.  (2 Corinthians 6:20)  Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  (Romans 10:17)  Consider how much of God’s Holy Word is story, narrative, and parable. 

The story of Jesus is a never-ending story, for we can be welcomed into the true story today.  His is the Greatest Story Ever Told.  Listen to the Story of the Bible.  Follow the narrative closely.  Pay attention not only to what you are being told, but how the story is told. 

There are lots of tools and paths we can take.  Take up a plan to read the Bible through in a year: the One Year Bible plan, a plan from the Daily Bread, or the Canadian Bible Society, or the Gideons; or simply read it from cover to cover on your own.  I notice the Gideons have a nice, simple plan: a couple Old Testament chapters for each morning, and some New Testament for each evening.  There are plans for reading and studying the Bible chronologically too.

Also, know the story of Christ by reading and hearing the stories of other believers through the centuries.  Listen to your own life story.  One of my old devotional books – by Frederick Buechner, is called “Listening to Your Life.”  That, in itself, is good advice.  Don’t miss how the Lord has acted in the events of your own experience.  Sometimes looking back we see more of God than we did at the moment.

We also learn and live by knowing the story of our culture, and our history.  The people around us who are younger than we are have a story to tell, they have experiences that help us understand them, they have ways of communicating that we can learn.  We learn to speak one another’s language.  But first, I guess, we learn to hear and understand one another’s stories.  And we seek to see the grace and truth of God shining thru.  What is the Holy Spirit doing among those who text all the time? I’m sure that’s a language God uses as well as any other.

Okay, here’s one commercial… I’m looking forward to the Simpson Lectures in February in Wolfville.  Stephen McMullen will be speaking on Christian Witness in an Age of Change.  I expect Dr. McMullen’s presentations, and the other workshops, will be detailed and challenging, but also helpful, down-to-earth and practical.  I hope some of you can check them out.  This is part of the story we are living now with Jesus: being witnesses of Christ in this secular age, this digital age, this postmodern age.

One last hint: many of us can learn to be storytellers.  I’m not much of a storyteller.  I'm more of a lecturer/teacher on Sundays, and a listener the rest of the week.  But the power of story attracts me.  I need to read and hear more storytelling, and try more of my own storytelling.  In our Faith, this is our testimony, our witness.  We share what happened, what we saw, what went on, where the Spirit was – what He was like – and what He did.  A few of us say this from a pulpit; many of us speak this from our living-room armchair.

And so, we get to be light in this world.  We join the great Light of the World, Jesus.  We no longer hide our light under a basket – we put it up upon the hillside.  God has sent a Saviour, who is also Lord, King, Ruler. 

Do you see what I see?

Do you hear what I hear?

Do you know what I know?

Listen to what I say!