Easter 2: Two Doubters

Two Doubters
Thomas and I
were not there that first Sunday
when new life burst the banks
of the old religion
and flooded reborn minds
with praise and thanks.
He was nearby
nursing his grief in solitude
with tearing fierce regrets;
while I was far away
among a people of many gods
who hedge their bets.
So at the first
we missed out on that Peace
which filled their hiding place
and swept away their fears
and made them the heralds
of Easter grace.
Thomas and I
were not inclined to trust
on hearsay evidence
a story that we wished could be true
but seemed to contravene
all common sense.
He, a week later,
was there when the Peace returned
on another Lord’s Day
lovingly scattering doubts
like the chaff which the wind
drives far away.
Millennia later,
like one born out of season,
I stood with the sceptical majority
when that ineffable Peace
humbly came and entered
my poverty.
I have not seen
with these mortal eyes
but I am touched by an Amen
whose Peace no power on earth
high heaven or deepest hell
can ever stem.
— B.D. Prewer, 2002
on his website Bruce Prewer’s Home Page
See also Bruce Prewer’s “A Creed.”
(For more creative worship resources for the Sunday after Easter,
click on "Easter 2" on the "Labels" list at the right.)