Blog Post 6–Friday, September 7, 2024

Had a great, exhausting day today. Can barely type but remember that this is a calling, not just an assignment.
Quick highlights—family day from start to finish. First the grandchildren at the playground, pure joy, then a day of seeing uniquely Scottish sights and learning new Scottish mythologies. Let me summarize first.

The Kelpies were the first surprise. Thirty meter high horse heads made of stainless steel that celebrate mythical water creatures that can shapeshift and appear on land as a giant horse. But this is a horse that EATS PEOPLE. It entices them to ride on its back then plunges beneath the water where they meet a watery death and well, you know, the whole eating thing.
Even with the horror of that myth, the sculptures are beautiful things that reflect the sun and seem to be made of stainless steel sinews.

A stop at the Falkirk Wheel, a unique version of a lock that replaced 11 locks with one ingenious rotating beam that lifts traveling canal boats like a child’s toy 34 meters (nearly 100 feed!) into the air to connect with the next part of the canal. It is the only one in the world and it was fascinating to watch the boats rising up into the air on the arm of the wheel. This project, completed in 2002, reconnected Glasgow and Edinburgh. The design is based on a double-headed Celtic axe.

We then went into South Queensferry, near Edinburgh for dinner and were surrounded by a dense fog—the notorious haar, a sea fog that shrouded everything in a damp mist that rolled in from the sea. We can tell you the exact minute we entered that fog as we drove into the city. It was a Harry Potter-like experience with narrow cobblestone streets and buildings built in the late 1600’s. It added a quiet spookiness to the city as day turned to evening and we walked from our restaurant back to our cars on the waterfront.

While there—another Scottish mythology—the Burry Man. I am not kidding—this is a man covered in….BURRS. The tradition is more than 800 years old and the Burry Man parades through the town collecting monetary donations (now for charity) and stopping at pubs to drink whiskey. But he has to drink through a straw because the of the burrs. The procession goes on for hours with a real human dressing up in an outfit covered with burrs.

The theory is that the Burry Man was somehow a kind of scapegoat, taking on the sins of the people as he walked and raised money for good causes. Perhaps the money raised was his repentance, it has been suggested. So mixed in with this is a concept of sin and choices and danger.

I am fascinated by mythologies that intend to scare us or shock us into awareness. Were the Kelpies supposed to keep young people away from the water’s edge? Did someone see the wind whipping up the ocean in a way that suggested the raised head of a giant horse? And the Burry Man—one of the actual humans who wore the burr costume—talked about the feeling of isolation he felt as he walked with the costume, an almost inhuman separation from others.

Mulling all this over in the car on the way back, wondering where myth leaves us and faith grabs us, or when imagination occupies the space that faith once lived in, I saw the best sign, a sign to live by, a sign that sums up tomorrow which is a Sabbath and celebration rolled into one.

On the side of the road, a picture of a tow truck was displayed and the sign said this: “Free Recovery. Await Rescue.” Now that sign engaged both my imagination and my faith! And I thought it was the perfect theme for tomorrow, and for all our faith journeys, sabbatical and otherwise: Free Recovery. Await Rescue.

We will head to church tomorrow morning at St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow on our way to Iona, an island off the coast of Scotland where people feel a deep sense of spiritual connectedness, as if they are nearer to God and God is nearer to them. I will carry those words with me. The Kelpies and the Burry Man live in my imagination, but God can do what a giant cannibalistic horse or burr-covered human cannot. God really can rescue me. In fact, I think God already has.
Hoping that your worship is blessed this week!

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