ON EASTER THIS SUNDAY, most churches can count on two things: a sermon tied to Jesus' resurrection, and a crowd swollen by folk who are no-shows at regular worship services.
"There's no question in my mind: Most American people think Easter is the Sunday to go to church," said the Rev. Lynn Hardaway of Central Baptist Church in Norfolk. He expects up to 220 people at his Easter service, compared with 140 on a regular Sunday.
The surge of strangers at holiday services is so predictable that some seasoned ministers refer to the "C&E" crowd - "Christmas and Easter" people who come to church only on Christianity's two biggest holy days.
That means preachers on Easter face a rare audience mix of congregants, nominal Christians, even unbelievers. The challenge, Hardaway said, is to give a sermon that connects with them all.
"If I got up and preached the theology of the Resurrection, it would bore them to tears," he said of Easter visitors. As a result, he tries to preach simply.
"The messages on Resurrection Sunday are never as deep as a normal Sunday because you have to place it in a reachable position for the folks who are attending specially," he said.
Hardaway's sermon this Sunday will emphasize that all people are liable to stray from God's paternal love, just as the Bible's prodigal son left his loving father.
"Easter is all about the invitation not just to receive Christ, but to renew that joy and communion you have with the father," he said.
At Mount Lebanon Baptist Church in Chesapeake, the Rev. Kim W. Brown expects to pitch his sermon for a blended Easter audience.
"You try to make it as elementary as possible and just preach the gospel... because you will get a diverse crowd, including people with no background in church."
Brown said he'll compare the stark contrasts life presents people with those encountered by Jesus, a divine emissary to all mankind who was abandoned at death by his friends.
At First Presbyterian Church in Portsmouth, where roughly half the 220 members are present on Sundays, the Rev. George Oehler also will adapt his sermon.
"I'm preaching to two groups: those committed at some level to the Christian faith, and some who'll sit in the pews and wonder what the hell they're doing there."
Oehler's sermon, "The Great Surprise," will be inspired by the disciples' astonishment at Jesus' resurrection.
"It is still a surprise when our lives get changed" by spiritual conversion "or just knowing we've been given the gift of love unconditionally and freely," Oehler said.
Many ministers say they won't use their Easter sermons to scold the wayward Christians who avoid church the rest of the year.
"I'm always very welcoming, even if they're people you only see on Christmas and Easter," said the Rev. James E. Parke of the Catholic Church of the Ascension in Virginia Beach. "Church is voluntary."
For Easter, he said, "my whole theme is that Jesus is really empowering us to carry on the dream" of creating justice, peace and love on Earth - "everything he died for."
Many ministers, including Brown, also don't see the Easter throng as an opportunity to hook new converts with a blockbuster sermon.
Instead, he hopes his sermon will cultivate spiritual growth. "I might not see the plant that Sunday, or ever, but I believe if I sow the seed of the gospel, it will increase their faith.
At Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach - a congregation of nearly 800 that averages 300 worshippers on Sundays - the Rev. John A. Baldwin's sermon will compare Jesus' empty tomb to human beings' innate spiritual hunger.
"Whether you're churched or unchurched, if you're honest with yourself, you recognize there's an empty place we long to fill" with God, he said.
But his preaching won't be the highlight of the Easter service, Baldwin said.
"The liturgy itself is so powerful - the music, the flowers, the ceremony - it activates all of the senses. People would get something of depth even if they slept through the Easter sermon."
Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com
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