Remembering Juneteenth: Burning Bush Call to Justice

The Exodus readings set up Moses as the very person who can stand before Pharaoh. Moses grows up in Pharaoh’s household, knows the idiom, knows the vernacular, knows how the court works, and can speak Egyptian with all the proper courtesies. Moses has been formed to stand in that room and negotiate on behalf of another interest.

Moses also cannot leave injustice alone. Moses sees an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave, and he intervenes. Moses sees two Hebrews beating each other, and he intervenes. Moses sees seven daughters bullied at the well by toxic masculine shepherds, and he intervenes again. The burning bush finds a person fluent in Pharaoh’s world and impulsively intolerant of injustice.

Juneteenth carries that same Exodus memory into American history. The Emancipation Proclamation declared enslaved people free, but Texas decided to ignore the law. Black Union soldiers finally marched in with uniforms and guns and said, in effect, “These slaves are free.” Isaiah’s line fits that scene: “How beautiful on the mountain are the feet of those who bring good news.” Those soldiers stood before the Pharaohs of that day and brought a word that sounded like God’s own intervention.

Emancipation, though, did not erase Pharaoh. Former slaves had nowhere obvious to go, few protections, and a world still ready to lynch, threaten, and punish. Slave codes had made reading and writing illegal because education meant freedom at a deeper level. Missionary schools, Freeman schools, and Presbyterian efforts in places like Johnson C. Smith and Barber Scotia became part of that freedom work. Churches and schools stood together because reading the Bible for oneself was dangerous to Pharaoh.

Katie Cannon’s story shows that emancipation was still unfolding a hundred years later. King’s assassination brought pain so deep that students had to be locked in a chapel and allowed to cry, cuss, scream, and exhaust the grief. Katie Cannon went to college “a Negro” and came out a black woman. That night became a burning bush moment, a call into a life of womanist theology, black theology, Scripture, and service.

The burning bush does not always arrive as a dramatic epiphany. God’s call may come as Spirit-movement through ordinary life, worship, injustice, memory, and pain. Memory matters because Exodus, Juneteenth, communion, and church anniversaries gather the scattered pieces and “re-member” them. Whenever God’s grace and redemption are proclaimed, sacred ground is underfoot, and Pharaoh is being confronted again.

##

Key Takeaways

• 1. Moses was formed for confrontation. Moses knew Pharaoh’s language before Moses ever faced Pharaoh’s power. God did not waste that strange formation in an oppressive household, but turned it toward liberation. Moses’ life shows that calling often uses both wounds and fluencies, both holy anger and hard-earned familiarity with the systems that must be challenged. [30:10]
• 2. Pharaoh keeps changing his face. Pharaoh is not only one ancient ruler in Egypt. Pharaoh becomes any grotesque abuse of power that feeds itself at someone else’s expense. Juneteenth remembers one confrontation with Pharaoh, but the work of discernment continues wherever cruelty dresses itself up as law, order, custom, or safety. [53:20]
• 3. Education threatened the slave system. Slave codes made reading and writing illegal because literacy opened a door no master could fully control. To read Scripture for oneself was to hear God without Pharaoh’s filter. Schools built by missionaries and churches became holy resistance because freedom needed minds, memory, and language, not only legal declarations. [38:18]
• 4. Grief can become a calling. Katie Cannon’s pain after King’s assassination was not neat, polite, or easily managed. The chapel became a place where rage and sorrow were held long enough not to become death. That exorcism of pain became part of a burning bush moment, turning devastation into a life of theological witness. [49:43]
• 5. Memory gathers scattered pieces. Memory is not nostalgia. To “re-member” is to put the members, the pieces, back together so a people can know where life has come from and what God has done. Exodus, Juneteenth, communion, and church history all train the faithful to stand again on holy ground. [59:32]
  ## [59:32]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [29:50] - Moses Formed in Pharaoh’s Court
• [30:41] - Moses Cannot Ignore Injustice
• [32:38] - A Burning Bush Call to Ministry
• [34:16] - Juneteenth and Delayed Freedom
• [35:03] - Black Union Soldiers Bring Good News
• [37:54] - Slave Codes and Forbidden Literacy
• [40:27] - Presbyterian Schools and Freedom Work
• [42:50] - Black Presbyterian Leadership Emerges
• [45:35] - God Marks the People’s Outcry
• [47:41] - Katie Cannon and King’s Assassination
• [53:20] - Pharaoh as Abusive Power
• [54:57] - Recognizing Burning Bush Moments
• [56:58] - Juneteenth as Sacred Memory
• [60:58] - Holy Ground and God’s Call

1. How did Moses’ upbringing in Pharaoh’s household uniquely prepare him to confront injustice? [30:10]
2. What specific actions did Moses take when he encountered oppression, and what do these reveal about his character? [30:41]
3. Why was literacy considered dangerous under slave codes, and how did education become an act of resistance? [38:18]
4. What role did memory play in connecting the Exodus story to Juneteenth and other moments of liberation? [59:32]

1. Why does Pharaoh serve as a metaphor for systemic oppression rather than just a historical figure? How does this apply to modern contexts? [53:20]
2. How might Moses’ “impulsive intolerance for injustice” challenge us to rethink our own responses to inequality today? [30:41]
3. In what ways can grief and pain, like Katie Cannon’s experience after Dr. King’s assassination, become a catalyst for purpose or calling? [49:43]
4. Why is communal memory (e.g., Exodus, Juneteenth) essential for sustaining hope and resistance against ongoing injustice?

1. Reflect on a time when you witnessed injustice. What steps did you take—or wish you had taken—to intervene, and how might your unique background equip you for such moments? [30:10]
2. Where do you see “Pharaoh” at work in systems today (e.g., policies, workplaces, communities)? How could you actively confront these forms of oppression? [53:20]
3. Education was a tool for liberation in the sermon. How can you support or engage in efforts to empower marginalized voices through learning or mentorship? [38:18]
4. Share a personal or communal memory (e.g., a family story, church tradition) that strengthens your resolve to pursue justice. How does this memory shape your actions? [59:32]
5. Katie Cannon’s grief became a calling. How might your own pain or anger about injustice be redirected into purposeful action? [49:43]
6. The sermon mentions “burning bush moments” that aren’t always dramatic. What ordinary experiences (e.g., conversations, worship, daily life) might God be using to call you toward confronting injustice? [54:57]