RESURRECTION SERMONS TO BE AS DIVERSE AS VALLEY.

Byline: Melissa Schmitt Daily News Staff Writer

To pews packed with parishioners eager to share in the renewal of Christ's resurrection, area ministers are preaching Easter messages today ranging from sermons on God's power to ``Full Monty Faith.''

For the Rev. Joey K. McDonald, the surprise British hit movie about unemployed steelworkers-turned striptease artists offers an unlikely but down-to-earth lesson in the restorative power of faith.

``Grace allows us to go further with our lives when we believe enough to stand naked before God,'' said McDonald, in a preview of the Easter sermon he is delivering at the First United Methodist Church in North Hollywood. ``The Full Monty'' is ``a graceful movie with a lot of theological undertones.''

The Rev. John Powell of Calvary Baptist Church in West Hills is giving a more traditional Easter message on the proof the resurrection provides of the power of God.

``The fact that he is powerful should excite us. It should cause us to fall down and worship him in our everyday walk with him and to live day by day.''

Like Powell and McDonald, ministers in pulpits nationwide will spend this morning trying to excite their congregants, many of whom they see rarely, in an effort to infuse their lives with meaning and faith, and maybe even inspire a few to regular worship.

``Easter is a celebration of the central act of God in the Christian faith - the resurrection of Jesus Christ,'' said Bryan Woken, pastor at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran in West Hills, where the congregation doubles on Easter.

``People always make an extra special effort when it's a holiday.''

On the power of God

At West Hills' Calvary Baptist Church, Powell's Easter sermon on God's power is the fourth in a series of 10 intended to help parishioners understand the attributes of God.

``Jesus said, Because I live, you should live also. One day we'll stand before him. He gives us new life even in the end. Having power in death is pretty powerful.''

Powell will answer common questions that can undermine people's faith in God, such as why, given his omnipotence, he allows sin.

``It's important to understand that God sees things from beginning to end. We go to the Rose Bowl Parade, and we see it as the floats go by. He's watching it from the Goodyear blimp. He sees history in that same way.''

For that reason, Powell said, God doesn't use his power to interfere in our everyday lives. He stops people neither from sinning nor from dying.

``Death is a reality. The Bible says, `Life is like a vapor.' We are here for a short period of time. Then it vanishes away. We need to make sure we live it as is best. God wants you to experience life.''

Accepting others

At St. Francis de Sales in Sherman Oaks, the Rev. Jim Maher is using his Easter pulpit to encourage worshipers to love and accept one another and pursue a relationship with Jesus Christ in order to share in God's glory.

Easter's commemoration of Christ's resurrection is central to Christianity. ``It is Jesus' glory.''

If Christians want to share in that glory, Maher said, they must work to do just as Jesus did, beginning with an evaluation of themselves.

``Until we look at ourselves and the gifts God gave us, we can't love one another.''

To do that people must establish a relationship with God, Maher said. ``If you don't want to commit and establish a relationship with God, then you shouldn't be able to share in his glory.

``This isn't the happy, happy, happy that people like to hear. But that isn't the way it is. God expects more out of us than that.

``We have work to do like he did. Good and bad. I'm asking people to examine themselves.

``Reach out to the poorest of the poor. How many times do you walk to the other side of the street to avoid the homeless? How many times have you given to a charity anonymously and let them put a face on the gift? How many times have you not shaken someone's dirty hand for fear of germs?

``Each person has the face of Jesus Christ.

``Take care of kids - orphaned and poor. That's how it all began. Look in the eyes of people made like you and me but have had bad things happen to them. Look each other in the eyes and call each other brothers and sisters.''

Naked in spirit

The congregants at McDonald's First United Methodist Church in North Hollywood are getting a movie review today along with their Easter message.

Having what McDonald calls ``Full Monty Faith'' in God can allow people to extend themselves in ways they never thought possible - to do things they would not have otherwise done.

The movie's main characters are unemployed British steelworkers who are down and out when they learn their wives are going to attend a male striptease show.

``The men that are stripping are young and virile, while these guys are middle-aged. They look at these Chippendale guys and say, `Why can't we do that?'

``And then they say, `We can.' They say they are going `The Full Monty,''' McDonald said. ``They go nude, though the movie doesn't show it.

``What they do show is these steelworkers naked in spirit. They are not virile hunks, they are normal human beings.''

While the movie wasn't intended to send a religious message, McDonald said he thinks it is a great illustration of what he wants to tell worshipers today.

``God calls on us as ordinary people to do extraordinary things.''

Easter reminds the faithful that Christ is first and foremost incarnate, McDonald said. ``He died a real death. He lived a real life. Jesus was human and showed us in his human form what we can do through the will of God.

``As Christians, the linchpin of our Easter is that the love of God can't even by quieted by death itself.

``Three weeks ago I did a memorial service for a member of our church. She had been married to her husband for 60 years. I told him he would never get over that kind of loss. I told him he would learn to cope.''

The underlying message is that people learn to live through our love of God, especially when loved ones die, McDonald said. ``Christians are Easter people. We believe there is more to this experience than what we're living and what we're doing.

``We are just coming off Good Friday. There is nothing good about Good Friday. It is the day Jesus was crucified.''

But Easter's resurrection proved God's love is so powerful, nothing can remove us from God's love, he said.

``God loves you. Get on with it. Get on with your life and sharing your love in whatever way you are called.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) ``Jesus said, Because I live, you should live also.''

The Rev. John Powell, Calvary Baptist Church in West Hills

(2--Color) ``Look each other in the eye and call each other brothers and sisters.''

The Rev. Jim Maher, St. Francis de Sales in Sherman Oaks

(3--Color) ``God calls on us as ordinary people to do extraordinary things.''

The Rev. Joey K. McDonald, First United Methodist Church in North Hollywood