Some years ago the tennis world was dominated by Australia. Two of the champions in those days were Rod "Rocket" Laver and Ken "Muscles" Rosewell.

Do you know why they had those nicknames? Coach Harry Hopman gave Rod Laver the nickname "Rocket" because he was so slow-footed! And he gave Ken Rosewell the nickname "Muscles" because he was so weak and frail! It was meant not as sarcasm, but as motivation. Coach Hopman saw in those men characteristics which weren't even there, not that anyone could "see"!

John Ruskin said, "Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see." He also said, "The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what he saw in a plain way."

Believing is seeing. The wrong perspective is imprisonment; the right perspective is empowerment.

We must literally learn to see. Adults who have been blind since childhood find it difficult to learn to see.

A man in Oklahoma regained his sight at age 50, after 45 years of blindness. He could see but for awhile he couldn't "see"! That is, he couldn't register what he saw, couldn't put it in perspective. Without experience, it just didn't all fit into any perspective for him.

A month after surgery, he felt more "disabled" than when he was blind! He had less self-confidence and found the seeing experience "shocking."

After reviewing the recorded cases of adults who received their sight after being blind, Marius von Senden concluded that every one of them experienced a "crisis" which for most was very traumatic.

We have all at some time had something explained to us, something we did not understand; and then, "O, now I see!" Now I see! Seeing is really believing, understanding.

Jesus showed them his hands and side. For them, "seeing was believing." Then he added, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." For us, "believing is seeing."

That does not imply blind faith. God does not ask us to believe "just because." Rather, he takes the initiative and asks us to respond, to apply faith.

"We love him because he first loved us." Perhaps we can add: "We believe him because he first believed in us."

After Jesus showed the disciples his hands and side, he told them. "As my Father sent me, now I send you . . . "

Once we "see" the good news, we will share it. We are sent, sent not so much by a command as by inspired motivation. That's the nature of good news. Remember how promptly I told you when I became a great grandfather!

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and . . . everyone born of God overcomes the world . . . Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes . . ."

Believing is more than just seeing, of course. If my physician tells me that a certain medicine is necessary for my well-being, my reaction may well be. "O, I see. In that case, I shall get some." But if I fail to get and use the medicine, my "seeing" does little good. To be helpful, I must buy it, and use it.

Believing the good news of the Gospel includes doing something. John Locke, 17th century philosopher, wrote, "Repentance is a hearty sorrow for our past misdeeds, and is a sincere resolution and endeavor, to the utmost power, to conform all our actions to the law of God. It does not consist in one single act of sorrow, but in doing works meet for repentance; in a sincere obedience to the law of Christ . . ."

The Easter Season is the 50 days from Easter until Pentecost. The theme of the season is the effect of the Resurrection.

One of the most significant effects of the Resurrection was believing, or faith. Believing led to unity. Faith and unity led the believers to a community life which was devoid of selfishness and materialism, until they lost the "first love."

In our first reading for today (from the book of Acts rather than from the Old Testament) we read that in their enthusiasm, or first love, "No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had."

I have pointed out before that communism did not work for long back then, just as it does not work today.

The theory is both Biblical and practical, but we humans are not sufficiently whole, holy, to reach that ideal. There have been a few communities where it worked for awhile, but very few, and very briefly.

As an ideal, Christians must espouse the ethic of togetherness and eschew the materialism which divides and separates us. It ain't easy! I dare say if we really believed, and could therefore see what faith can and will do for us, it would motivate us to live and love as Jesus and the early Christians lived and loved. That takes radical commitment.

Their community was no forced communal life-style. They shared because of love. Their hearts were set on things above. They were not cumbered with stuff.

You have seen the bumper sticker, "He who collects the most stuff wins." That was doubtless intended as a joke — unless the driver was a trash collector.

Most of us (I am probably the worst offender) squirrel away too much stuff in basements, attics, closets, drawers . . . Incidentally, I am now disposing of my "stuff."

Puritan Cotton Mather observed that every swarm of bees has its own scent. When different swarms meet, the conflicting smells trigger a fight. When the bees have been pollinating, the smell is masked and they smell the same. Then there is no competition and they get their work done!

Competition and materialism are not only antithetical to everything Jesus lived and taught, they are also blocks to the unity and community necessary to the fulfillment of a Christian lifestyle.

Hasidic Rabbi Mikhal said, "My life was blessed in that I never needed anything until I had it." Amen!

The most powerful and exciting effect of the faith/unity experience of the early church was their witness. Their preaching was powerful, souls were converted, the church grew rapidly.

There is a story of a monk who found a precious stone. He carried it in his bag. One day he met a traveler. When he opened his bag to share his provisions with the stranger, the stranger asked for the stone. The monk gave it to him.

The traveler was excited. The stone would make him rich. However, a few days later he came back to the monk, gave back the stone and asked, "Please give me something much more precious than this stone. Give me whatever enabled you to give it to me!" The monk gave him the Gospel!

Not everyone is asked to give up his possessions. But we are all asked to give up greed. John D. Rockefeller was rich. He said, "I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty." He became very generous, I am told.

One of my favorite stories is of a new family who moved into an Amish community. The Amish people watched the new family unload a refrigerator, a freezer, a stereo, a dishwasher, a washing machine and a dryer. One of the Amish couples went over to welcome the new neighbors with some home-made bread.

As they left, the Amish gentleman smiled and said, "If one of your appliances breaks down, call on me. I'll be happy to tell you how you can get along without it."

When we talk about power we are talking about the Holy Spirit. "Peace be with you . . ." and with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."

The Holy Spirit power is both an effect of Resurrection faith and an agent of the faith/unity/witness which empowered Christianity to make such great strides. The growth-spurt of the Christian movement was lost when they compromised the Spirit's challenge to reflect Jesus' radical principles.

The description of the early church sounds like Camelot — unity of heart and mind, possession of all things in common, powerful witness for a resurrected Christ. It all seems so idealistic and so smooth. But it was costly. Many paid with their lives. When being Christian no longer cost very much, Christian witness didn't pay very much! It's as simple as that.

The power of their witness was the unity and love they shared. "See how those Christians love one another."

When people see that kind of love and concern and compassion among us, they will see the fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus (John 17). Actually, they will see Jesus in us — "Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:27)

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."(John 13:34, 35)

He "breathed" on them . . . and thus bestowed the gift of the Spirit.

The word for breathed is the same as in Genesis 2:7 when "the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being." Also in Ezekiel 37:9, referring to the dry bones, "This is what the Sovereign Lord says, 'Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'"

Roger L. Fredrikson says that "those who have been breathed upon are called to be a forgiving, healing people . . . Wherever the breath of the risen Lord is, there is forgiveness." He goes on, "Too often the institutional church has not been 'breathed on' and consequently has lacked the spiritual authority to deal with sin. Then it becomes a 'do-good club' enmeshed in a maze of legalisms or simply a friendly collection of people. But there is no loosing of sin."

Jesus said, "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven: if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." That is a difficult text. Barclay says, "This does not mean that the power to forgive sins was ever entrusted to any man or men; it means that the power to proclaim that forgiveness was so entrusted . . ." It "lays down the duty of the Church to convey forgiveness to the penitent in heart and to warn the impenitent that they are forfeiting the mercy of God." The Church — that's us — must preach forgiveness!

If we are faithful witnesses, if I am a faithful preacher, we will "tell it like it is," we will declare the Truth of Jesus and his Word, the Bible, as clearly as we can. It is a frightening responsibility. But it can and must be done.

Suppose during our next wedding here I should say to the bride, "Do you love this man?" She would answer, "Yes, I do."

"Are you sure you love him?"

"Yes, I am sure I love him."

"Are you absolutely positive you love him?"

Trying to retain her composure, she might say, "Yes, yes, I am certain I love him."

"How do you know you love him?"

That might elicit something like, "Well, I always tho't I loved him," unless she remembers Pascal, in which case she could say, "The heart has its reasons which reason does not know."

So it is with belief, and forgiveness. "How do you know you love him?" How do we know God loves us? If we wait until we can prove love, or even the existence of God and good, prove it intellectually, we shall likely wait indefinitely!

Harry Emerson Fosdick said in a sermon, "All the law-abiding order and beauty of the world, all the nobility of human character at its best, explained as though the physical letters of the alphabet had been blown by a chance wind into the 13th chapter of First Corinthians! Christ and all he stands for, nothing, as it were, nothing but the physical notes of the musical scale tossed by purposeless winds until accidentally they fell into the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven? Is that not utterly incredible? Are you not bound to doubt your doubts?"

Gerald Morgan said, "I used to think faith was a head trip, a kind of intellectual assent to the truths and doctrines of our religion. I know better now. When my faith began to be shattered, I did not hurt in my head. I hurt all over. I ached in every fiber of my being."

American theologian Horace Bushnell, when he was young, gave up his faith and his church. A friend who wanted to help him find his way back, did not ask, "What are your doubts?" But, "Horace, in what do you still believe?" And "Are you living up to the level of truth you do understand?"

The challenge of the question, and the searching elicited by the question, brought Horace Bushnell to a full, confident faith, and to a position as one of the great theologians of his generation.

Unity, community, faith, love, brotherhood, togetherness . . .

One more quote from preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick:

"We ask the leaf, 'Are you complete in yourself?' And the leaf answers, 'No, my life is in the branches.' We ask the branch, and the branch answers, 'No, my life is in the root.' We ask the root, and it answers, 'No, my life is in the trunk and the branches and the leaves. Strip the branches of leaves and I will die. So it is with the great tree of being. Nobody is complete and merely individual."

Let us pray . . .