St. Paul's Presbyterian Church

Bible Text: Isaiah 6:1-8 and John 3:1-17 | Preacher: Rev. Bruce W. Kemp

Robbie Burns has grown to become a figure of legendary importance in Scottish culture. The way in which he captured life in his time was unique. He wrote of the struggles of the common people. He found themes in religion, politics and love. Many of his poems have been set to music and their messages have inspired love and hope for more than 200 years.
The poet was born in a thatched cottage in Alloway, Ayrshire. His father William was a well-educated farmer who was responsible in large part for the education of his children. William was a free thinker who had his issues with the church. He even wrote his own relatively liberal catechism as an alternative to the recognized catechism of the day. Robbie became an avid reader with an interest in most subjects including the philosophy of Adam Smith and John Locke. You could say that Robbie Burns was destined to be a rebel.
The emerging Reformation of the 15th century had taken hold in Scotland largely through the influence of John Knox but the transition away from the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches to the new Reformed church was not without its trials and tribulations. In the mid 16th century a group of Presbyterians decided that the time had come to take a stand once and for all. They banded together in a movement that was known as the Covenanters. They made a pact with each other that they would accept no head of the church except God himself. The Reformation had freed people to have a relationship with God that did not depend on the intercession of a priest or religious leader and the covenanters were determined that they would never change. Thus were planted the seeds of free thinking in the church. Eventually this led to the great disruption of 1843 when the Free Church of Scotland came into being.
It was in this period between the rise of the Covenanters and the great disruption of 1843 that William and his family lived. While not rejecting the church, William taught his sons to have a healthy skepticism when it came to matters of faith. As a result, it seems that Robbie – like his father – was not one to easily accept the authority of the elders of the local church.
As a young man Burns studied local religious practices and read with interest liberal theological works of his day including that of the Unitarian thinker John Taylor. He was attracted to the preaching of two Ayrshire clergymen who held to the belief of Arius who argued that God the Father and God the Son were two separate entities. This was in direct opposition to the accepted belief in the church that God is a trinity but that all three entities are equal and one creation. His free-thinking father had given Burns a mind that sought to debate the issues of theology but his neighbours came to shun him as they found him to be what they called “Rab the Ranter”.
Burns was ever the lover. However, his choice of partners never seemed to go well for him. He often got the cart before the horse and landed himself in hot water with the Church and the father of his first love – Jean Armour. His first thought was to escape and go to the West Indies to make a fresh start. To raise the funds needed, he published a collection of poems. He soon became a local celebrity. His fame spread and he abandoned his plan and moved to Edinburgh where he became known as the “ploughman poet”.
Burns struggled with the conventional religious practice of his day. He believed deeply that every one needs to decide for themselves the truth about God and redemption. He struggled with the concept of original sin believing as the ancient Celts that the creation of God was good and therefore we are inherently good. He also felt that being scared into heaven by a fear of hell was not a good way to come to faith in God. Rather he believed that people were to be guided into living an honourable life.
Eventually Burns was able to marry his longtime sweetheart but he only had 5 short years with her. The church and Jean’s family were now willing to grant their blessing. It was no doubt the sincere concern that Burns had always held for her welfare and the guilt that he expressed for his part in the trials of her life that made the difference.
Burns was searching for the God of love and hope. He was searching for the God who would meet him where he was in life and encourage him to be all he could be. He was searching for a God with whom he could argue and discuss and through such times of conversation come to a place where his faith in that God made sense.
The church of his day seemed to leave little room for such debate. The Calvinist influence was strong and Burns found himself in opposition to its theology, piety and social attitudes.
Burns was a poet to be sure but he was a poet with a deep social conscience. He sincerely believed that all humans were to be treated with dignity and equality. He was concerned for the injustices that he saw in the society and remained outspoken until the end of his days. He took issue with both the clergy and the lay people in the church over the unwillingness of any of them to debate the matters of faith in such a way that people might come to understand for themselves what they believe. Orthodoxy ruled in the church and views that ran contrary to it were not tolerated. In one of his poems Burns even dared to wonder whether or not the Devil could be saved.
The Calvinist interpretation of predestination was still quite strong in his time and his poem “Holy Willie’s Prayer” highlights the difficulty he found with the doctrine:
O Thou, that in the heavens does dwell,
Wha, as it pleases best Thysel’,
Sends ane to heaven an’ ten to hell,
A’ for Thy glory,
And no for onie guid or ill
They’ve done afore Thee!
All in all, Burns was a simple farmer at heart but one whose free-thinking father had shaped him into a person who would never accept anything at face value. In his Epistle to the Rev. John McMath, he denounces the hypocrisy of the church:
But twenty times I rather would be
An atheist clean,
Than under gospel colours hid be
Just for a screen.

As to the afterlife Burns was not sure whether he would merely moulder with the clods of earth of the valley or go to some reward for having acted an honest part among his fellow creatures.
Burns believed that God had created us to enjoy life. Perhaps Burns enjoyed it too much but he did not see much joy or love in a faith that denied all the pleasures of life. He wrote:
“We came into this world with a heart and disposition to do good for it, until by dashing a large mixture of base Alloy called Prudence alias Selfishness, the too precious Metal of the Soul is brought down to the blackguard Sterling of ordinary currency.”
However we choose to remember Robbie Burns, it is clear that there was more to this person than perhaps we have come to believe. Though his life was short and troubled, though he found some success with his poetry and songs; perhaps the real story of Robbie Burns is a man who sought to have a relationship with his God – one in which he could feel a sense of joy and peace, one in which he knew in his heart that all who walked upon the earth could be embraced and made whole.