|
 Dr.
Wayne Shaw, who Dr. Scott considers his homiletics mentor, taught
him a two pronged approach: preach to the believers or preach to the
unbelievers. In the church Dr. Scott preaches in, he follows that
approach as they sing an invitation hymn each Sunday.
Today, Dr. Scott said he was following another two pronged approach
by speaking to both the class of 2024 and the whole LCU family.
The Biblical text Dr. Scott used was from Psalm 131:1-3, which are
part of the song of ascents of David. In this passage, King David
says, “O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too
high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous
for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child
with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel,
hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.”
In the Bible, Dr. Scott said the word “heart” is found 857 times.
Sometimes the word refers to the heart as the muscle in our chest
pumping blood or the figurative heart of the sea. Most of the time
the word heart is used in scripture, though, Dr. Scott said it
refers to the center of the inner person.
In Psalm 131, David is not trying to occupy himself
with things that are too great. Dr. Scott said a weaned child does
not go to his mother for nourishment but goes to his mother to be
close to her. The waiting and hope are for a future that will be
glorious.
Charles Spurgeon once said Psalm 131 is one of the shortest to read
but the longest to learn. Spurgeon called it a “pearl.”
The Eugene Peterson says Psalm 131 is “I’m not here to rule the
roost, I’m not here to be king of the mountain, I’m not in the
grandiose plans.”
On the big occasion, Dr. Scott said many might wonder why he would
use this little Psalm seeming to call people to something less.
Summing it up in one sentence, Dr. Scott said in humility and in
hope, crawl up into the lap of God.
Speaking specifically to the class of 2024, Dr. Scott said in
humility and in hope, will you just crawl up into the lap of God?
The students have sometimes burned the midnight oil and have been
probing the deep things of God. Dr. Scott said that is no small
thing and the students are to be honored.
While acknowledging the graduates have worked hard, Dr. Scott then
said, “you don’t know what you don’t know, and you probably don’t
know what your professors would have liked you to know.” Dr. Scott
was sure “you don’t know what you will need to know out there in the
future.” What he said the graduates should do is crawl up into the
lap of God like a weaned child.
When he came to Lincoln Christian Seminary in 1976, Dr. Scott had
been in a five year degree program with extra language and theology
classes, but soon felt he was dumber than a box of rocks. He
realized there were many things he just did not know.
As a young preacher in Rochester, Illinois, Dr. Scott
said people were coming to him for premarital counseling, though he
had never taken a counseling class. He decided to enroll in a
premarital counseling course so he could learn how to help married
couples.
In the church, Dr. Scott had a deacon who drove him crazy. Dr. Bruce
Parmenter told him to become a friend to the deacon because it
sounded like the man had no friends. Years later, the man would
drive a distance to hear Dr. Scott preach.
[to top of second column] |
One of Dr. Scott’s former students later enrolled in
a master’s and then doctoral program in Israel’s Be’er Sheva
University. The week before he was to defend his dissertation, the
student emailed Dr. Scott asking for any advice Dr. Scott could give
him. His advice to the student was, “every week, do something for
somebody that doesn’t give a fig about your degree because we don’t
know what we need to know.”
In humility and in hope, Dr. Scott said the class of 2024 should
crawl up in the lap of God when you don’t know what else to do.
Speaking to the broader LCU family, Dr. Scott said, in humility and
in hope, let’s just crawl up into the lap of God.
For a couple of weeks after the news of LCU’s closing came, Dr.
Scott said he wept. Though Dr. Scott thought it might be hard to get
through the graduation ceremony, he decided to assume the posture of
trust like a weaned child.
Next, Dr. Scotte commended the courage of the LCU president and the
trustees and God because it might have taken an equal amount of
courage as it did in 1944 to start the place.
Even as World War II was going on 1944, Dr. Earl Hargrove and others
had a vision to open the school, which Dr. Scott said must have
taken courage.
Other schools have done what LCU is doing, but Dr. Scott said he has
not seen any school with the integrity this school is doing [in
working through the school’s transition]. What Dr. Scott sees the
school do is pay the bills and pass the baton. He is proud to be a
graduate of LCU.
When Dr. Scott and his wife heard the news about the school [and the
transition to Ozark Christian College, his wife told him we have to
build a building. Though Dr. Scott does not know if or when that
will happen, he is glad someday there is something that says Lincoln
Seminary so the vision will continue.
The Scotts went to Ukraine in 2012 and visited
Taviriski Christian Institute, one of the schools LCU sent books to.
He later saw the pictures of how the Russians trashed the campus.
Dr. Scott said TCU is inheriting one of the finest libraries of our
tribe.
Through Lincoln Christian Institute, the work of LCU will continue
and Dr. Scott mentioned several who will be teaching. He said it is
not really about credit or non-credit [classes], it is about
equipping the saints and serving the church.
Though Dr. Scott is not sure what the right path but feels when we
don’t know we should crawl into the lap of God just trusting the
vision to live on in God’s ways.
When Dr. Scott graduated from Lincoln Christian Seminary in 1983, he
recalls receiving the “servant’s towel,” which he considers a prized
possession. Started by Dr. Wayne Shaw, the tradition of giving a
towel to seminary graduates lives on. Dr. Scott cares that the
vision lives on.
Pat Robinson, one of Dr. Scott’s teachers at Denver Seminary said
that for God, sometimes the shortest distance between two points is
a zig zag. Dr. Scott said Lincoln is zigging and zagging, but that
is okay.
Something else Robinson said is we live in perpetual hope and hope
is the music of the future. Faith is the courage to dance to it now.
In closing, Dr. Scott said he is ready to dance all the way into his
mother’s arms and in humility and hope, crawl up into the lap of
God.
[Angela Reiners] |
