Pansy and I have discovered food service and gift shops are commonly found in British churches. This is true not only in massive cathedrals but in smaller local congregations as well. Thus, a visit to a house of worship can readily provide food for the body as well as for the spirit.
In our travels in the U. K., we’ve enjoyed refreshment ranging from hot tea and pastry to salad plates and full meals with meat and vegetables in places as varied as the small Baptist church in Bath to cathedrals in Coventry and Southwark (the area across the Thames River from Central London).
The gift shops sell not only postal cards and other simple mementos, but also sacred music CDs, Bibles, prayer books, other inspirational reading materials, and even original art work.
St. Martin-in-the-Fields is a church we have often visited in London. The present building was built in 1726, but worship was conducted on the site at least as far back as A. D. 1222 when it was, indeed, surrounded by fields. But nowadays, St. Martin’s is at Trafalgar Square in the heart of the city and no longer “in the fields.” We have been there for worship services and concerts and, not incidentally, the eatery in the basement, known as the Cafe in the Crypt.
On a late afternoon near Christmas, we ducked in through St. Martin’s side door and down the steps of the Crypt to escape the winter chill. In the cafeteria, we drank pots of tea and ate salads and soup, along with their incredibly delicious bread and butter pudding.
St. Martin’s also has a reputation as a center for classical music dating back to its earliest years in its present building when both Handel and Mozart at different times performed at the church. An orchestra based at the church was founded in the 1950s. Known as the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the orchestra has an international reputation for its recordings and live performances.
As we enjoyed our leisurely meal during that holiday season, the sound of an orchestra and chorus rehearsing Christmas selections from Handel’s Messiah drifted down from the upper region of the building. That oratorio lifts my spirits as few other musical selections can, any time of the year, but most of all at Christmas.
After we ate, we went into the adjoining shop where I discovered a painting by British artist Joylene Lowrance.
People in the painting were braving the rain, some with umbrellas aloft, others with no protection from the elements. I was drawn to the artwork, but I found the title particularly striking: “With Sunny Spells Later.” I felt the artist was giving a “reverse spin” to our usual hopes concerning the weather: We like to think clear skies are the norm, with occasional interference from rainy spells. But Ms. Lowrances’s name for her painting suggests the opposite.
Pansy and I have never been inclined to purchase original artwork, usually settling for inexpensive prints. And we didn’t buy the painting in the Crypt shop. But I couldn’t get away from the thought that “Sunny Spells Later” describes the normal emotional and spiritual climate in many lives, perhaps especially in the Christmas season.
Sickness, accidents, relations with difficult people, job loss or transfer, and death in the family are more common than we like to admit. When these or other trying times bring dark clouds our way, perhaps we question God. This just isn’t the things that are supposed to be.
Sandra Hayward Albertson’s book, Endings and Beginnings, tells of the struggle as she and her husband faced his inoperable cancer and her adjustment after his death. She earned a master’s degree while her twin sister and brother-in-law provided housing and saw after her two young daughters. As Mrs. Albertson reflected on her husband’s illness, her writing suggest the title of that painting:
Likening his condition to a drama, she said healthy periods turned out to be an intermission between the main acts as the disease ran its natural course. She said she attempted to provide longer intervals in the tragic drama which offered little by way of comic relief.
Another writer, Pete Greig in God on Mute, tells of his thirty-two-year-old friend Mike whose daughter was born with a serious physical disability and probably will never walk. To complicate life further, Mike has been diagnosed with degenerative arthritis which threatens his career as a hiking, camping, cycling instructor. As Mike reviewed his situation, he said he used to think he had “some kind of divine right to happiness.” He said he knew he would face “the occasional rough patch,” but, after a while, he found it easier to accept life as difficult and not blame God for the way life goes.
When it seems we are in endless periods of emotional and spiritual rain and storm, such as the foregoing quotes, we may echo the feelings of numerous psalms which are called laments. Consider these excerpts from Psalm 39, one of the laments, in which the singer feels the Lord is sending difficulties upon him as he longs for “sunny spells”:
LORD, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is! Behold, thou hast made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing in thy sight. Surely every man stands as a mere breath! Surely man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nought are they in turmoil; man heaps up, and knows not who will gather!
. . . Make me not the scorn of the fool! I am dumb, I do not open my mouth; for it is thou who hast done it. Remove thy stroke from me; I am spent by the blows of thy hand. When thou dost chasten man with rebukes for sin, thou dost consume like a moth what is dear to him; surely every man is a mere breath!
Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears! For I am thy passing guest, a sojourner, like all my fathers. Look away from me, that I may know gladness, before I depart and be no more! (Psalm 39:4-6; 9-12).
A modern-day echo of the psalm’s lament is from Tevye, the dairyman in the musical Fiddler on the Roof. In one of his many conversations with the Lord, Tevye points to himself and his fellow Jews as God’s Chosen People. He wonders why God can’t choose somebody else for a change.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “The Rainy Day,” tells us, “Into each life some rain must fall,” but we may wonder why cloudbursts come as we long for “sunny spells later.” Longfellow also said, “Some days must be dark and dreary.”
The Advent season leading up to Christmas comes in the shortest days of the year, with much literal darkness. In those days of lengthening night, as we read the Gospel accounts, Mary and Joseph are confronted by stormy times: Mary is troubled when the angel tells her that she -- an unmarried woman who has never had relations with a man -- is to have a baby. Joseph, likewise, is upset when Mary tells him the news. He finds it difficult to believe she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit and not by a human father. But angel messengers bring “sunny spells” by assuring, first Mary, then Joseph, that all this is the work of God. So they see sunny spells as they travel for the census to Bethlehem, where their Son is born, announced by angels and visited by shepherds.
Christmas itself can bring emotional and spiritual stormy times which make us long for sunny spells later. Perhaps some of the following scenarios describe our stormy spells:
*We spend time and energy making lists and then buying presents, perhaps spending more money than we we can afford for people who couldn’t care less for us or our gifts.
*We gain pounds as we eat and drink too much at dinners and parties, then face the New Year with resolutions to lose some of that excess weight. Vows that seldom last till the end of January.
*We gather for festive meals or gift exchanges, apprehensive about whether Uncle Joe and Cousin Cynthia can peaceably remain in the same room for an hour or two.
*We shed tears of joy as dear ones arrive for a few days or maybe only a few hours. Then we shed painful tears of goodbye when the visit ends, wondering when we will be together again.
*We look around at empty seats, once filled by loved ones we cannot see again until the day when there will be no more parting.
*We see other chairs, left empty by younger members of the family serving in wars which have little meaning and no apparent ending. Or those in long-term care. Or those who live hundreds of miles away and are unable to make the trip with only one day off work.
*We sense the return of stormy times after the big meal and gift exchange as relatives and friends are called away by work schedules and resumption of classes.
But when the rush and excitement are all over, perhaps, we are able to look back with gratitude for the sunny spells, short as they were.
Like Joseph and Mary, who see sunny spells after the Baby is born, after the shepherds return to their sheep, we can, with God’s help, determine to do the next thing.
For the new parents, that next thing was to take their infant Son to the Temple for purification and dedication. Then, just when Mary and Joseph began to enjoy sunny spells, the Wise Men came seeking the newborn King of the Jews. The men logically, but incorrectly, had gone to the palace. This led King Herod to send out an order to kill all the little boy babies two years old or younger. This, in turn, caused Joseph to flee to Egypt with Mary and the Baby. But through it all, there were “sunny spells later” as God led the Holy Family to safety, away from the king’s threats.
As we wait for sunny spells in our lives, we can pray for patience to wait for their arrival and for the faith to believe they will come.
These passages from Isaiah, which Christians see as fulfilled in the coming of Jesus, suggest “sunny spells” amid times of storm and darkness:
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising (60:2-3).
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast increased its joy; they rejoice before thee as with joy at the harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. . . . For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this (9:2-3; 6-7).
This story is from my book, "Once for a Shining Hour: Reflections for Christmas," a collection of inspirational articles. The book is available from www.amazon.com in paperback and in Kindle editions.
