Osbournby Church: Mysteries and Enigmas

The Church of Ss Peter and Paul in the Lincolnshire village of Osbournby is awash with curious and enigmatic features. Externally, there are some inscribed letters which appear to be medieval, and mean little to the contemporary reader (below).

Internally, there are carved heads of gurning faces...

...keeping company with strange, mythical creatures.

Ancient doorways filled with what may well be the original doors...

There are fifteenth and fourteenth-century pew ends with carved diagrams and enigmatic figures.

Inbetween a record of the 10 Commandments is a figure of a man, painted, who must surely be Moses, the Law Giver. Holding the tablets and also a rod for the benefit of law-breakers, he represents God's mighty moral laws, against which we are so apt to trespass. 

Also rather curiously, there is large oil painting which I would date to the late seventeenth century depicting an Israelite High Priest. It is likely Aaron, brother of Moses, Israel’s first priestly mediator of the Tabernacle, replete with turban, ephod and breastplate. This church is used to strange pictures and images, but this one may be explained.

Aaron was a signpost to the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ. He mediates between sinful people and God, representing their needs and plight to a holy Potentate whom we may not approach in our own right. Now that is a mystery revealed, that is a conundrum solved. Of all the strange letters and carvings at Osbournby, the most important one is how I can draw near to God despite my corruption.