Meditation on Philippians 4 and John 14
In Memory of Harold Stanley Scott
April 10, 1934 – January 12, 2026
Rev. Dr. Karen Crawford
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY
January 24, 2026
He was working a part time job, guarding the ice at Belmont Lake State Park, making sure the kids didn’t go on thin ice and fall in.
Joan’s friend, Margie, had said to her, “Joan, I have met the man that you are going to marry.”
The first thing Joan noticed about him was his big smile and how joyful he seemed.
Scotty was born Harold Stanley Scott to Vivian and Roland Scott on April 10, 1934. His younger sister, Ethel, was born about two years later. Roland, their dad, had no education beyond high school. He was involved in local politics in the Town of Babylon.
Scotty was baptized in the First Presbyterian Church of Babylon. His mother was Superintendent of the Sunday School. He was drawn to the Holy Scriptures at an early age. He memorized Psalm 23 as a young boy and never forgot it. He received a Bible on Sept. 24, 1944, from the Presbyterian Bible School in Babylon. He was confirmed and became a member of Babylon Presbyterian on June 1, 1949.
His pastor, the Rev. Albert Allison Leininger, was strict. He preached against drinking, dancing, and playing cards or BINGO. But Scotty always believed in a loving and gracious God whom he wanted to follow and please with his life.
The Lord had given him a love for music. He enjoyed singing and played saxophone in the marching band at Babylon High School. He was popular with his classmates, who signed his yearbook, The Trawler, in his senior year in 1952. They called him “Carrot Top” for his red hair. They said he was “swell,” had a “contagious laugh,” and was “easy to blush.” One person wrote, “Good luck to the funniest man in the band!”
Scotty dreamed of becoming a dairy farmer. He graduated in 1954 from what was, at the time, SUNY Long Island Agricultural and Technical Institute at Farmingdale. But working on dairy farms in upstate New York for two summers opened his eyes to the difficult life, milking the cows twice a day and getting up at 4 a.m.
One day, a man from the State Health Department came to inspect the dairy farm where he was working. Scotty decided, from that moment on, that he wanted to be a health inspector, instead of a farmer. He landed a summer job working for the Suffolk County Health Department in Bay Shore. They were surprised by his maturity and work ethic; they offered him a career position. He received additional training and experience in the U.S. Air Force in 1957 working as an inspector for the food being served to the servicemen and women. He would eventually work for the Suffolk County Health Department office in Hauppauge, finish his bachelor’s degree from Empire State College in 1977, and retire from the health department after 33 years in 1990.
Are you wondering whatever happened to the boy and girl who met at Belmont Lake State Park in the early 1960s? Scotty called Joan a week or so later and they began dating. But it would be another 10 years of dating off and on before they decided to marry. What was holding them back? Their religious differences.
Joan was a faithful Roman Catholic who was never going to be Presbyterian. And Scotty was a faithful Presbyterian who was never going to be Roman Catholic. And Scotty’s father was against his son marrying a woman who was Catholic. When Scotty was determined that he would marry Joan, this was the first time Scotty had ever stood up to his father.
They married in St. Mary Roman Catholic Church in East Islip on Dec. 12, 1971. Through Scotty, Joan began to see the Lord in a new perspective—as Scotty saw the Lord as a loving and gracious God, merciful and quick to forgive. Every morning at the kitchen table, he led them in Bible reading, devotion, and prayer from Our Daily Bread.
“He brought me peace and joy,” she says.
They moved to Smithtown soon after they were married. They began their first of many travels that spring, going to Bermuda. Their adventures together over the decades include vacations in Hawaii, Colorado, and the southern states; Caribbean Cruises; and a trip to a Mexican resort. They managed to get lost when they became detached from a tour group in Bryce Canyon. They traveled on a sailing ship with just 60 other people. They went to the Mediterranean and through the Panama Canal; they visited an active island volcano at night that was like a spectacular fireworks show.
Scotty joined the First Presbyterian Church when the Rev. Bill Brown was the pastor. The couple began attending services at Sts. Philip and James Roman Catholic Church in St. James and the Presbyterian church in Smithtown every week for years, although Scotty did stand out in the Catholic church.
“Catholics don’t sing,” Joan says, “and he’s belting out all the hymns.”
The Scriptures that Joan and I chose for today’s celebration of Scotty’s life were not all the Scriptures that were significant and relevant to him and Joan. There were many more! It was difficult to narrow our choices down to 5 or 6, including Psalm 23, which Scotty memorized as a child.
John 14 speaks of the promise of a house with enough rooms for every believer in the world to come. Friends, there’s room for Lutherans and Methodists; Anglicans, Episcopalians and Lutherans; UCC and AME; Baptists and Brethrens; and yes, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics and others, too. And we all live and serve and praise the Lord together in the Kingdom of God right now.
Jesus, in John 14, promises that he will never leave us orphaned in this world. He will always be with us through the gift of his Spirit, the Advocate and Comforter, whom he sent to dwell with us, help and lead us in our walk with God. And we mustn’t worry about things. Rather, we should trust in God, trust in Christ. “Let not your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says. “And do not be afraid.”
The passage in Philippians was one that Joan often read with Scotty, especially when things were difficult. Paul reminds us in this passage, written while he was in prison for sharing his faith, not to worry about things, but to pray about everything, to be thankful and joyful—not because we are always happy, but because we have the joy of the Lord as a gift. This joy is our strength.
Paul teaches us that we have the power to direct our own thoughts. He provides a list of things to think about for the resilience of our hope and faith. He says, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” And he tells us to keep on doing the good things that we have learned to do from the apostle and the Lord: “Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing.”
Here’s the promise if we are thinking on the things in this list and doing the things that Paul and our Lord are leading us to do. “Then the God of peace,” he says, “will be with you.”
Scotty became active with our church as soon as he became a member in the early 1970s. He sang with the groups that went Christmas caroling and he was ordained and began active service as a deacon on June 5, 1980. He helped build houses with a group from our church for Habitat for Humanity in 1988.
After he retired from the health department, he enthusiastically labored as a volunteer, even more, serving food and washing dishes for the soup kitchen operating out of churches in Port Jefferson. In 1992, he was recognized for his volunteering in hospitals and nursing homes by the Smithtown News. In 1994, Newsday recognized him for his volunteer service, as well.
He would later help with the El Salvador ministry, traveling with groups from our church for three years to work in a medical mission and share the joy of the Lord and friendship. He went even though the food was out of his comfort zone. Debbie Rosenberg remembers how he would ask as they sat down to a meal, “Can I get a hamburger?”
When I met Scotty in 2022, he was struggling with some health problems. My first impression, when I visited him and Joan at their Smithtown home, was that he was polite and sweet, and a snappy dresser. He smiled at me when I sat at the kitchen table with him and Joan. He always appreciated when I brought them the bread and cup and celebrated Communion with them and continued visiting when he was in the hospital and nursing home after he injured his neck.
In 2023, when Parkinson’s had progressed and he needed more care, he moved to the Long Island State Veteran’s Home. That was a sorrowful day for him, as he and Joan sat sharing their half a sandwich at the kitchen table, as they had done for years. Scotty recognized what Joan did not at the time—that it would be his last meal in his Smithtown home. He would not be where he wanted to be from then on. He wanted to be with the love of his life.
Scotty and Joan really were a match made in heaven, though people on earth may not have recognized it, at first. For you see, it never really mattered that she was Catholic and he was Presbyterian. What mattered was their love for one another and the love and joy for the Lord and God’s people that they shared.
Their love was always on display when I brought carolers to sing to Scotty and Joan every December for the last four years. The man who could only say a few words because of Parkinson’s would join us in singing every verse of the Christmas songs.
Tears would stream down faces as he did a very un-Catholic thing, when he belted out the hymns: Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright. O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
It was as if the Lord had given him who could barely speak a wonderful collection of good thoughts that he would never forget. He still had the power to fix his mind on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
You have that power, too.
And the God of peace was always with him, just as the God of peace will always be with you.
Amen.
Sharing God's Love and Grace 