Heaven in Ordinarie

‘Heaven in Ordinarie’ Commentary by Jonathan Evens Cite Share Show Bible Passage Stanley Spencer attempted to depict ‘heaven in ordinarie’, in the famous phrase of the poet–priest George Herbert, and did so primarily in the English village of Cookham, which, for him, was a suburb of heaven. Looking to see ‘heaven in ordinarie’ is a particular response to the incarnation—God having moved into our neighbourhood in Jesus—which therefore expects to see the divine in everyday life and mundane events and activities. Similarly, Paul encouraged the community of Christ in Thessalonica to live holy lives where they were. We know this because Paul regularly moved around in his ministry but wrote only of wanting to return to Thessalonica and never of the Thessalonians coming to him (1 Thessalonians 2:17–18; 3:10–11). He wanted the Christians in Thessalonica to live out their faith and know Jesus in their lives where they were. Spencer’s painting The Lovers (The Dustmen) shows us a way to do this in a very different epoch by focusing on one dustman in particular who is being celebrated for the work that he undertakes, both by his wife and his neighbours, and also by his colleagues. The dustman is lifted up by his wife, while ‘two children in a state of ecstasy hold up towards him an empty jam tin, a tea-pot, and a bit of cabbage-stalk with a few limp leaves attached to it’ (Spencer in Glew 2001: 154). To raise things in this way is an act of worship or praise. Spencer wrote that ‘[a]s a child I was always looking on rubbish heaps and dustbins with a feeling of wonder’ (Pople n.d). As a result: [a]ll the signs and tokens of home life, such as the cabbage leaves and teapot which I have so much loved that I have had them resurrected from the dustbin because they are reminders of home life and peace, … are worthy of being adored as the dustman is. (ibid) Together with this sense of adoration, Spencer also has a sense of restoration: I like to feel that, while in life things like pots and brushes and clothes etc may cease to be used, they will in some way be reinstated, and in this Dustman picture I try to express something of this wish and need I feel for things to be restored. That is the feeling that makes the children take out the broken teapot and empty jam tin. (ibid) References Glew, Adrian (ed.). 2001. Stanley Spencer: Letters and Writings (London: Tate)