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How is Your Hearing?
Matthew 1331-9
June 3%, 1968

‘low is your hearing? That's really a better question than i+
mi¢ht eeem initially. Unless you have a physical problem, you are heoring
something right now, that is, sound waves set in motion by my voice ore
striltine the incredibly sensitive mechanism of your eare, in turn ©" ting in
motion em incredibly complex motor process which terminates somewhere in
your minds. All thie ie happening right now; as fast as I am speaking,
you oe veceiving sounds and tranemitting them into ideas. You are hearing e

there are few things more fascinating than the physiological sepeots
ef beeing. What you hear can have a remarkable physical affec t.
thines I say may raise your blood pressure; cause you to blush, or recuce
your metabolic | rate to the point that you fall asleep. And it’s all
involved in thie matter of hearing.

But even more fascinating are the paychological aspects of boar liy.
For inetance, everyone of us is « selective hearer. There are other sound
waves otriking your ears at present, but if you are at all interested in
whet I am eaying you are able to shut these out, and hear only whet you want
to hear. If you sit down at table with emall children you know exeo'ly
whet I mean. k Im that situation seleodtive hearing ie absolutely necosnery
to filter meaning out of chaoe.

Beyond that, hearing gets very much involved with a whole lo’ o!
other personal, or paychological aspects of our selvee. Two people lirtening
to the came sound, invariably hear two different things; that is two <ifferent
idene omerge in their minds. If we are dealing with vocal sounds, someone
speaking, what we actually hear is very moh dependent on who we are, “=

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who is doing the speaking, where we are, and most imporsant of all ~ what we
think we are going to hear. On occasion my children will approach me, soghhe
"Daddy" in a certain tone of woice, and my response is “no”. That ic, I
think 5 mow what they're going to ask; I've already heard them, and to
complete the mechanical procees of hearing would be academic. Now that's not
very good, and I certainly don't recommend it to you, and yet you aid I are
doin, it all the time. When a minister speaks, the actual process of hearing
begine before the sounde strike our ears. When a politician of the other
party addresses us we hear him, and respond to him, long before he euyn
anything. We do it all the time, and it's never good, in any circumptonce.
Jearing is terribly important in thie matter of the Godpel of Jomus
Chvict. "He who has ears, let him hear.” That terse statement was pmecipated
by a problem we have reason to believe bothered Jesus, and which has comtminly
bothered his followers for 2,000 years. The problem is thie: the ‘orpel
is “oo News; the very best news men have wver received. In our day eveny-
one ioe heard it — that ie, the good news has been put into words tha! in one
form oc smother have struck every ear in the nation. But not everyone
responde in the same manner. Many don’t respond at all. Something bes cone
wrom:. le it the fault of the gospel? Is it really not "Good News”.
Is it the fault of the telaer? Is the good news ambiguous, or confurin
or dicterted? . That's possible. Or ie it the fault of the hearer’
Is the real problem this whole paychological procese I've described, in
which heering in the final analysis depends more on the hearer than o) ‘oer
the toller or the content of what he is telling?
Jesus asked that very question, and anewered it by way of a mtory
abou! « sower weattering hie seeds.

bew Tertament scholars suggest that we are dealing here with sto
bicigephy; that the situation occureed late in Jesus minietry: that i+
was poocipitated either by a question put to him by one of the disciplen,
or oy bis own “thinking—out-loud"” regarding the obvious fact that his poople
were not reeponding favorably to him. He had encountered and spoken with a
lot of people in those three years; more often than not the response was
either tipatny or hostility. Now he was asking "Why?" Hadn't they

it is a familiar question for anyone who engages in any type of
teacling and that means nearly all of us: the minister in the pulpit: ‘the
teacher im the classroom: the parent in the home. All of us wonder whether
amyl is getting through: whether we are even heard. How do we iknow,
ultimately, whether what we teach is “taking"? Occasionally, miraculourly,
we discover that the seed did take rpot and sprout. fven so occasions ly
the Sencher can look at a young life and see the evidence that his, or bor,
rele soo been impord@mmt: that he, or she, was heard. But only occasionally.
Monty we live with the constant possibility that we're fighting a looing
battle: that our words fall on deaf ears: that we might as well be saving
cur boee th. Those of you who have ever tanght in the Church School wi!) mow
exaclly what I mean, for the Church School class is perhaps the mort
irrel.-iews of all situations in which to be a teacher,

sn any case, I think we can feel the dilemma of Jesus as he pul the
qaeo\ion to himself. Perhaps at that moment there was a sower near by,
ecetlering hie seeds across a field. It's interesting in this sense mt
grein wee sown before the gound was plowed in firet century Palertine.
The mom, then, became a perfect illustration of the task of teaching.

oxijow

Some of that seed wasn't going to grow. Some of it was going to fall om the
path and be eaten by birds, Other seed would sprout quickly in the soi)
and then wilt because there would be no depth. Still other seed would opeout
am “lowwieh only to be decimated by weeds and thistles. ‘The sower mow
all ‘ies these were the given risks in being a sower of seeds. Ani yo! oume
were going to make it. He knew that, too. Some of the seed would fall om
fertile soil, and grow and bear fruit, one hundred fold. And it

woulda't take many seede, bearing one hundred fold to justify the ini tel
labor of eowing.

New the scientific American mentality recoils from this kind o!
caneloomess. liow much better to test the soil and plant only where the given
vinie ove at least minimized. And yet Sowing - in that indiscriminate
manner, wae then, and is today, a perfect simile to the tabk of teaching.

ome of it ies not going to take, for a variety of reasone. ©“ 00
mom) o. it isn't. But some will: and that justified the effort. ‘the portant
thin, io to be a faithful teacher: to keep at it: to keep sowing.

bow that'ssimple enough. But at thie point a subtie shift coms
in the etory Jesus concluded by saying, “lie who han ears, let him boar.

That ic, it's not «a parable about a sower at all - it's a description
ditverunt kinds of soil. It's not a homily on faithful determination in
the took of teaching ~ it's an urgent commentary on the act of hearing.

.m the final analysis, Jesus seems to be saying, whether a porson
heenn or not, depends on nothing or no one eo much as himself. Hearlmy 19,
finally, em act of will. A man hears what he wante to hear: and simie ~~)

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what le prefers not to hear. It was one of Jesus’ more offensive
taaite, of course. ile could take a rather innocuous little story like this
one «oul twiet it ever so subtly until eome burden of responsibility woe
pinned diwectly on hie hearere. So it was in this situation - “He who hea
eexs, let him hear."

Chere are some terribly important implications to all of thin: come
@o obvious that I won't take your time to recite them. It ie an important
parable because ‘hearing does break down in many vital areas of ppar Jive
and. gine.

i wonder, for instance, whether the Church ever hears the worl.
De weg op the Church of Jesus Christ, ever keep our corporate ears to two
grwue, listening to what the world might be saying to ue? It would soon
not. ‘or too long the church has led a cloistered life, conducting «
momolo ue "at" the world, never bothering to listen to what the world in
saying. (me wonders, for instance, whether the rather dismal statioticn)
position of the Church today might not be the result of simply being out of
touch, for too long, with the world? We don’t know what people are soying:
we con'\ know what kinds of questions they're asking. And it's no wonder,
geally, that much of the world counts ue cut 328 irrelevant.

me wonders, for instance, whether race and poverty would be ouc)
major concerns today, had the Church been listening to the world dom ‘oog
the yoo. But we never heard - because we weren't listening. And now
it's almost too late.

Un & more modest seale © I wonder how mich we really hear eno) other.
Do wo, in fact, ever get around to really listening to what another pereon

is saying to use I don}jt think so. 1 know that much of the noise eumie ting
from the pulpit is not heard. I read books that tell me the pulpit is
obsolete: that it ie no longer a viable instrument for telling the Joupht.
I know, because of a general antipathy, an alaost complete lack of my
response, that. mort of the words thet flow from this wooden box just a
not beard.

I've had the perreonal experience - and I know you have, too = ©:
talicine with another individual and not really being heard. The words ore
there of courses; the mechanism is working perfectly, but hearing is no’
taking places Rahter the other ie busily constructing the next barrage - or
pexleoe listening or locking somewhere elee., That's frustrating: it's
delmeewising: it says "I don't really matter mach to this person." ‘hi)
what really bothere me ie the fact that I'm guilty of it myself - ax ox

me of the telling signe of the timee is the fact that a growbLy
mutber of people have to pay $25.00 an hour just to find a sympathetic ear;
someone who will be quiet long enough to listen; someone who will tele oo
oud wiat I have to say seriously. Some me who will “hear” me.

1 wieh somehow we could change that. 1 wish the church could soo
iteol om that commmnity of individuals in which every member counts. |
wish we could start being listeners to each other. Becuspe that is te
Zimplest, most basic, and perhaps most important way there is of mingoooentk
loving mother person: ~ affirming his importance by hearing what he ouys.

“He who has ears, let him hear."

Pinally, I wonder if we really ever hear the Gospel. ne wihwdent
of the Jew Testament has suggested that the story of the four differm’!
typee of eoil is really a rather acourate portrait of the average Protestant
Congresetion.s And I'm inclined to agree. But I'm more concerned thie sorning
about you and me: have we really heard? Or have we heard what we wenijed
hear? You see, that's an impor@int question because Jesus laid the
regpomeibility of hearing on every man who has ears.

God has spoken. lie has spoken in Jesus Christ, Hie Word mate “losh.
He hae apoken a good wor d of love and freedom and salvation, and he eo
called we to respond by being his loving, free, serving, sacrificing
@isciples. The seed is sown. God has spoken.

jew is your hearing?

CTI «

mr Father give us ears to har thy word to us. Crant us to
liste © each other, to the world, but most of all ~ to Thy still om.)

voice. ‘hrough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.