"The Advent of Jesus Christ, now about to be celebrated": An early PECUSA sermon for late Advent

During Advent laudable Practice has been sharing extracts from the sermons of Cornelius Roosevelt Duffie, Rector of Saint Thomas, New York City, 1824-27. We conclude these extracts today with a sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, preached on the text Luke 19:10, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost". 

It is noticeable that the sermon makes frequent reference to the approaching festival of Christmas. We might regard this as something of a response to the Advent purists in our midst, who sternly declare that no mention can be made of Christmas until late on the evening of 24th December.  Duffie's sermon disagrees, pointing to a wise pastoral approach in which the penitence of Advent prepares for, points towards, and coheres with the celebration of the Lord's Nativity. The sermon might then also be regarded as an echo of the epistle appointed for the day: "Rejoice ... The Lord is at hand". 

The nature of the Christmas feast is also captured by the sermon: its "engaging light ... infinite beneficence and mercy ... widen the sphere of human happiness ... Let us with gladness". As with the epistle of the day, joy runs through the sermon in anticipation of the Nativity. Again it is difficult not to think of the Episcopalian Washington Irving's account of Christmas: "this festival, which commemorates the announcement of the religion of peace and love".

The last paragraph also includes the phrase "veiling his divinity in human flesh", almost certainly likely to be a reference to Welsey's carol.

This is one of those beautiful and touching declarations which place the Advent of Jesus Christ, now about to be celebrated, in its proper and engaging light; as one of infinite beneficence and mercy. Not less true than engaging, my brethren, is this delineation of our faith. Jesus, a Saviour; the Gospel, good news; the ministry, a ministry of reconciliation; these are such definitions of what Christianity is, and of what we are permitted to represent it to be, as make it a pleasure and a privilege, on our part, to proclaim it.

... my brethren, let us contrast for a moment, that coming of our Lord, which we are now about to celebrate, with the motives and objects which govern the great men of the earth. They have come only for the purposes of ambition and self-aggrandizement. They have come to gain for themselves the name of conqueror. They have come to make heavier the burdens of the poor; to carry desolation into the peaceful fields of industry; to deprive of its humble joys the lowly cottage; to increase the miseries of humanity; to call forth the tears and groans of widowhood and orphanage; to lay waste; to scatter; to ruin; to destroy.

Jesus Christ is come on an errand of mercy. He is come to comfort those that mourn, to bind up the broken-hearted, to speak peace to the troubled spirit, and consolation to the afflicted soul, to widen the sphere of human happiness, to extend and to exalt its hopes. By him poverty is reconciled to its privations; earthly sorrow is cheered with celestial prospects; death is despoiled of its sting; and heaven, with the fulness of blessedness, is open to all believers. These are the blessings which the Saviour, veiling his divinity in human flesh, came to offer and to impart to the wretched and the miserable. Yes, my brethren, "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost". Let us who are lost, embrace with gratitude the extended benefit. Let us with gladness hail the birth of this divine, this beneficent Messenger from the courts of heaven. Worthy of angels hymns is this gracious Advent of our Lord. Let us prepare to take up their anthems of praise - "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will towards men".

(The painting is George Harvey, 'Nightfall, St. Thomas Church, Broadway, New York', c. 1837.)