A man of words and faith

It would have made Peter Hilty smile. At a restaurant last week, just three days after the death of the venerable Southeast Missouri State University English professor and poet, a young man was spotted wearing a T-shirt with this message emblazoned on the back: "Delightfully Tacky, Yet Unrefined." That turn of phrase, it is imagined, would have elicited a laugh and perhaps a 20-minute conversation about the use of adjectives and adverbs.

Peter employed words the way a surgeon wields a scalpel or a violinist holds a bow -- with precision. The son of a pastor and the father of another, he was immersed in the beauty of language. Word selection was important to him. Each word conveys a certain meaning, so Peter was careful to pick the appropriate term.

Given that sensibility, the words of Mark 10:17-18 may well have resonated with him. "Why do you call me good?" Jesus replies. "There is no one good but God alone." Jesus objected to a poor word choice; Peter Hilty would have understood the Savior's objection more than most.

I imagine Dr. Hilty acting as the wordsmith if T-shirts had been assigned for the original disciples. For Matthew the tax collector, the shirt may have read: MONEY: AN INADEQUATE MOTIVATION. For Simon Peter, MANAGE YOUR PASSIONS. For Judas Iscariot, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU DO "QUICKLY."

Peter Hilty was a man of erudition. He wrote magnificent and beautiful poetry. His work was carried in numerous periodicals, including the Saturday Evening Post. He was erudite but not effete. He was not a man who sipped triple lattes. Peter's daily regimen included coffee at a fast-food eatery plus the other basic breakfast fare served up at that establishment. He got there in a pickup -- a vehicle that had some wear. As he did. Peter's physical health was far from robust, but like his truck, he kept going: Burger King for breakfast, Rotary meetings at Monday noon (always one of the first to arrive), worship at the Sunday traditional service (sitting next to his dear friend Lillian, while his beloved wife, Nancy, sang in the choir) and behind the pulpit teaching Sunday school in the small chapel at Centenary. Right to the end, he kept moving.

According to his son, Daniel, Peter Hilty regarded the Bible as true and trustworthy. You are not still teaching adults the Bible at age 87 unless you found something utterly unique about the book.

There is something to be said for people who keep moving. A friend of mine who had many physical infirmities once told me that if he waited until he felt good before he did anything, he would never leave the house. I suspect Peter Hilty rarely felt good -- yet he kept getting up and getting out. Right to the end, he kept moving.

On the last morning of his life, he was at Burger King. Coffee at the ready, the Missourian close at hand, he was talking to a friend across the room about the weather. "There's a front moving in." Not long after those comments, he collapsed -- never to regain consciousness.

The Holy Spirit is often compared to wind, which is an integral part of weather. On Nov. 19, Peter Hilty's spirit, which had arrived by way of a pickup truck, began its departure via a different conveyance. The wind of the spirit started to carry him away, finishing its work just more than a day later. What a poem Peter might have composed about that experience!

There is a front coming in for all of us. Are you ready for that front? Perhaps Dr. Peter Daniel Hilty would tell us to keep moving and don't stop, right to the end.

Jeff Long is pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau. Married with two daughters, he is of Scots and Swedish descent, loves movies and is a lifelong fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.