In an early morning report on MPR today, I listened to a reporter's story on yesterday's memorial service for beloved Minnesota writer Bill Holm who died last week. Died, too young, I might add, with stories still to be told, heads still to be turned, minds still to be expanded. We grieve his loss and celebrate the words he shaped to make us think, challenge us, make us proud to be Midwesterners.

One part of the report was of particular interest. In the small Minneota church where the service was held, the sanctuary was, of course, packed with friends, family, reporters, former students, and admirers. But there was also an empty chair that simply held the newspaper. It seems it was Bill's practice to read the newspaper during worship services. He didn't try to hide it. He just sat there reading. The pastor of this church said he always knew Bill was reading the paper AND listening to what was preached. He knew because at times Bill's bushy white eyebrows would lift in a certain way as they hovered over his clear, Icelandic blue eyes. From the particular lift, the pastor would know that his point was perhaps too sappy or….he could hope….articulate and well made.

All preachers need a Bill Holm in their community to keep them honest. We need those in the community who lift their eyebrows asking the questions we perhaps forgot to ask ourselves. We need those people who will send us to the latest book, the newest theological thought, so we continue to grow in our understanding of the faith as we encourage and affirm the paths and questions of those around us. We need to read the morning newspaper, in and out of church, so we grapple with the difficult issues of our day as we seek to connect them with the wisdom of the scriptures. We need to resist the easy, sappy words that sound like greeting cards and embrace instead the full bodied messages that withstand time, those our ancestors gave their lives for…..mercy, justice, forgiveness,resistance,unity, and hard-won hope.

Holm's pastor also told of how he once casually left a poem he had written lying around and Bill found it. He was proud and humbled when Bill handed it to him and pronounced it, "pretty good." As someone who had probably received his fair share of criticism,both literary and otherwise, Bill Holm probably understood that a "pretty good" every now and then is a salve for the soul.

So for all the preachers out there, may there always be a few raised eyebrows to promote honesty. May they be raised with love and care for the good of the whole community. And may that "pretty good" go both ways, from pastor to parishioner and back again as the whole community seeks to be the people of faith grounded in love.

It won't make headlines but it might make for a pretty powerful journey together.

"I write not just to amuse and divert (though I hope that happens, too),
but to make connection to all of human history on the planet, to the
fine threads that connect us into a tribe, quarrelsome and idiotic
though we sometimes are." ~Bill Holm