The Gospel reading today was John 20:19-31, John’s account of Thomas’ doubt and eventual confession of Jesus as his Lord and God. The choir sang this lovely piece, written by Thomas Troeger, called, “These Things Did Thomas Count As Real.”

These things did Thomas count as real:

the warmth of blood, the chill of steel,

the grain of wood, the heft of stone,

the last frail twitch of flesh and bone.

 

His reasoned certainties denied

that one could live when one had died

until his fingers read like braille

the markings of the spear and nail.

 

The vision of this skeptic mind

was keen enough to make him blind

to any unexpected act

too large for his small world of fact.

 

May we, O God, by grace believe

and thus the risen Christ receive

whose raw imprinted palms reached out

and beckoned Thomas from his doubt.