CLASS OF 2023 LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.COM MAY / JUNE 2023 Page 59 my books, except for two Bibles, to the Book Barn in Forsyth. A few months later, Marie died peacefully with a hospice nurse in attendance. And then one Saturday I recalled Phil 2:6-11 and reading it brought me to burning tears because it speaks of Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but he emptied himself taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father Do you understand how important his name is? Today, of all days, you seminarians will be given a very special towel, as it were, bringing Jesus’ towel into your life and ministry. As my beloved mentor, Dr. Wayne Shaw said, when he instituted this practice: “This towel signifies that when our students graduate, it is not for arrogance, honor, or prestige, but so that they might go out and wash the feet of the world. This is what we are about.” Do you understand the mission this towel commits you to? My email signature summarizes what I have learned in my journey: life here is so precious and death here is so final, but God has given Jesus the name of Lord! When I experienced how serving another emptied me of all arrogant pride and of everything of value that I owned, I identified deeply with Jesus Christ who emptied himself to serve me. I understood in my heart that he made himself a nobody for me. Miraculously and almost instantly, he became my Lord for now and eternity! The very next morning I returned to church to worship and to Bible Study. Graduates, if you remember nothing else that I have said, remember Saul, whose name was changed to Paul. Remember his changed signature in Gal 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me!” Not I, but Christ! Not I, but Christ!
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