The telephone rang in my office one day, and a mother, a member of my parish, blurted out, "Oh, pastor, they just found the body of my son, Kenneth. He drowned in the Missouri River over at Chamberlain!" I was stunned, and then I heard her sob. "It had been a hot day. Kenneth, driving gravel truck all day, decided to take a swim to cool off. And he didn't make it back to shore. Pastor, what'll I do?"
I remember swimming at that very beach with my family over the years. As I drove over to Erna's house, I thought about what she must be feeling. She was obviously totally devastated, heartbroken, stunned beyond belief. "O God, help her," I prayed.
We enter our story in the village of Nain best, when we feel a bit of what Erna felt. The mother, in Luke's gospel, from the little hamlet of N…