The following sermon was delivered at Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia on August 1st, 1977 by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Church. Today's topic is, Do This and You Shall Prosper. 

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen. If I may, I'd like to just comment on the last song that the Truro singers shared with us.

Karl Barth is widely acclaimed as this century's leading theologian. He died a few years ago, but he was probably the greatest intellect since John Calvin in the theological world. And at one point, Karl Barth was asked by a reporter, Dr. Barth, can you sum up for us what is the center or what is the most important thing out of all your study and all your learning?

And Dr. Barth said, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. I want to give you a quiz this morning. Before you panic, I'll tell you there's only one question, and you can grade yourself.

But it's an important question, and I want to deal with it, I want to raise it in a number of different ways. I've discovered, as I've studied Scripture somewhat, as I've gone through it, an interesting thing. That whenever God speaks in the Scripture about success, which is rather frequently, He invariably ties it to one basic requirement.

And I'm not talking only about spiritual success now. He does speak about that, but any kind of success, be it financial, material, social, even political success. Whenever the Scripture speaks, whenever God is portrayed in Scripture as speaking about success, he ties it to one basic requirement.

I don't want anybody to speak yet, because that will really ruin this sermon. But I'd like to know, at this point, how many of you think you know what that basic requirement is? We have about half a dozen.

Let me give you a few clues to it. He says, do this. Do this one all-important thing, and your way will be prosperous, and you will have good success.

In another passage, he says, do this, and you will be like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding fruit and not withering. In all you do, you shall prosper. Fairly all-encompassing, isn't it?

In all you do, you shall prosper. Another place it says, do this and you will have power over sin. Do this and you will discover how to live.

One passage in the Psalms says, if you will do this one all-important thing, you will excel in wisdom beyond all your teachers, even me. do this and you will have faith understanding peace prominence joy and life itself we could go on adding other things but all those are specifically tied to this basic requirement now how many think you know what it is well we're getting there now why don't you just hold your hands up for a minute and we'll see how many hands go down it's not prayer it's not righteousness it's not loving the Lord lost some there didn't we it's not coming to worship it's not tithing sorry about that Billy it's not witnessing it's not reading the Bible it's not fasting it's not becoming an Episcopalian and it's not even getting elected to the vestry that's fairly good we still have some hands what is it? praising?

no it's not praising Maybe somebody said it, but I didn't hear it. It's meditating. Meditating.

Can you believe that? All those promises that I just read are specifically tied in every instance to meditating. Now, obviously, all these other things are terribly important and they're connected.

But that's the one that's mentioned. Let me read you just a couple of verses. From Joshua, the first chapter.

This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do all that is written in it, for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. From the first psalm. What man is like a tree planted by the waters, bearing fruit and not withering?

The one whose delight is in the law of the Lord, who meditates on it day and night. How do I attain greater wisdom than all my teachers? Psalm 119 says, by making my testimonies my meditation.

Where do peace and joy come from? Great peace have those who love thy law. My mouth praises thee with joy when I meditate on it.

Meditation. Now before I go any further, I've got to issue a disclaimer. Biblical meditation, Christian meditation, has nothing whatsoever to do with the Eastern form of meditation that has become so popular in the last ten years or so.

We're not talking about that. Eastern meditation seems to have as its goal the emptying of your mind, A mindlessness, blanking out of all thoughts so that your mind becomes like a blank tablet. And anything or anyone can write on it.

Very dangerous, as a matter of fact, because God is not going to manipulate you in such a state. But there is someone who will if he gets half a chance. The enemy of men's souls, the deceiver of the brethren.

So we're not talking about that. Eastern meditation is not only mindlessness, but willlessness. So that I become totally disengaged.

That's not biblical meditation. Biblical meditation is active, specific, concrete. The mind and the will are very much in play.

You notice if you listen closely to those verses, it's not just meditate, period, but it's meditate on Thee. Meditate on Thy Word. It's filling my mind with the words of Christ, with the words of God.

And then playing with them, rolling them over, enjoying them, savoring them, chewing them, digesting them. As that lovely prayer from the second Sunday in Advent says, Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. That's what God's Word is for.

To nourish us. G.K. Chesterton one time said, The purpose of an open mind is precisely that of an open mouth.

Namely, that we should discover something nourishing and fix tightly upon it. We're not talking about mindlessness. We're talking about meditating actively on what God has said.

Scripture says, love God with your mind. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. And from our scripture this morning and from the Toro's singers, Song up there, let the peace of God and let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Interesting contrast at that point between our gospel and our epistle. You can remember that far back in the service. The gospel warned us against being like the man who's piling up more and more material possessions, building bigger and bigger barns to house them.

And then the Lord comes and says, this night your soul is required of you. what good is all that going to do? but then the epistle tells us let the word of God dwell in you richly let it be your riches and you can transfer that thought that what we're being enjoined to do is tear down our little barns and build bigger barns to store up the word of God to accumulate all the words of Jesus Christ that you possibly can to lay hold of them and pile them up and make them your riches.

Let the Word of God dwell in you richly. Now what are we talking about? The prerequisite for meditation, I would suggest, is study, and in a word, memorization.

Scripture says, how shall a young man keep his way pure? By taking heed unto thy word. Thy word I have hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

It says I've memorized it, I've committed it by heart, so I know it. So at any time I can call it forth. It becomes my sword, the sword of the Spirit is the word of God.

I have it at my disposal because I've hidden it in my heart. And now I can meditate on it. Anytime, anywhere, I can enjoy that Word of God.

Bill Gothard tells of his own academic career, and he says that he started out as a very, very poor student. And a friend challenged him to begin memorizing and then meditating on the Word of God. and so he began just a verse at a time at first and then as time went on he got to the point where he could memorize a whole chapter a week and just enjoy it with the Lord and he made this interesting comment he said the continuous mental discipline of memorizing and meditating on scripture rebuilt my thought structures refocused my emotions and redirected my goals.

And as a result, very logical byproducts of this activity were increased memory span, greater ability to concentrate, and improved reading rate. What began as a spiritual exercise ended up turning him into an honors student. I'd like to make some very practical suggestions to you.

It would be easy to come away from this kind of a sermon saying, well, that's a nice pep talk, nice spiritual pep talk, and do nothing about it. I'm challenging you to do something about it. Now, don't make this mistake.

Many, many people have made the mistake of saying, yeah, I've heard about reading the Bible and studying the Bible and memorizing the Bible for years, and by golly, I'm going to do it. I'm going to read for an hour a day. And then they absolutely wipe out.

Set yourself a realistic goal. Try five minutes a day. Ten minutes a day.

Could I urge you to get up ten minutes earlier tomorrow and spend that time reading the Scripture, enjoying it with the Lord, meditating upon it. I challenge you to do that for a month that seems to me a realistic goal to get up ten minutes earlier each morning for a month and spend that time with the Lord let me offer three specific suggestions first you might write this down take a bite sized portion something between a paragraph and a chapter something that's enough to sink your teeth into but not so much that you get lost take a paragraph in the RSV and just spend ten minutes reading it over asking God what does it mean in fact three questions what does it mean sorry what does it say what does it mean what does it mean to me how does that apply to me what do I get out of that today how is it going to affect my life today? You might ask specific questions like this.

Is there a promise here for me to claim? Is there a command to obey? Is there a pattern to emulate?

Is there an example to follow? Is there a sin to forsake? Is there a condition to fulfill?

What does it say? What does it mean? What does it mean to me today?

That's the first. just roll that over in your mind and in your mouth and share it with God treat it like a love letter written by the Lord Jesus Christ to you secondly write it down after you've spent that time take what seems to you to be the most important phrase or the most important verse out of that paragraph and write it down on a 3x5 card stick it in your pocket and carry it with you during the day gentlemen or ladies as you're driving to work and you come up to a stoplight instead of sitting there fuming pull it out read it with the number of stoplights that we have here in the Washington area you'll have it memorized by the time you get to work turn it into a creative opportunity pin it on your shaving mirror take a glance at it for me I have to use very short verses Jesus wept and I'm done remember Lot's wife and I'm done you know put it on the wall above the sink while you're doing dishes write it down the writing itself will help you memorize it but then refer to it make it your own begin to build however small the building block begin to build every week for over a year and a half studying scripture together once a week at lunch. Where do you begin?

Most anywhere. Begin with the resolution to begin. If you can't think of anywhere else, begin with this passage in Colossians.

Take Colossians 3.17. And whatever you do, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father through Him. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly.

God promises success to those who will meditate on His Word. Let's pray together. Father, it's not for me to issue this challenge.

I believe your word itself challenges us and I would ask you therefore in the name of Jesus to speak very personally to each one of us this morning. To take you at your word. To respond to this challenge to begin building scripture into our lives.

To find creative ways to do that. To begin to study it. As Paul said to Timothy, to study, to show ourselves workmen that don't need to be ashamed, who rightly handle the word of truth.

Help us, Lord, each of us in our own ways, to find the appropriate manner in which to build Scripture into our lives. Let the word of God dwell in us richly. For Jesus' sake, Amen.

Amen.