The Burning Bush – Exodus 3: 1-15

Rev Bruce Kemp

The symbol of the burning bush is one that I have been familiar with my whole life. I have seen it on our books of praise, on printed materials from the church and more often than not, pulpit falls and communion runners have been embroidered with it.

The Latin inscription which accompanies it is well known as well: Nec tamen consumebatur – Yet it is not consumed or It shall not be consumed.  But like so many things in our faith, we often have no idea why or how such symbols have come to a place of significance.

The origin of the symbol and its association with the Presbyterian Church in Canada and other Presbyterian churches around the world began in 1583 before the establishment of Presbyterianism. It was first adopted as the official seal of the fledgling  Reformed Church of France. The Hugenots – the name given to what would come to be known as Protestants – were the first Reformed church to give serious consideration to what would embody the overarching theology of the movement to reform the church.

One of the original seals showed the burning bush with the name of Yahweh engraved in Hebrew letters in the midst of it. The Latin phrase Flagror non consumer – I burn, but am not consumed, appeared in a circular pattern around it.

It is believed that the decision to take the burning bush as an official seal was influenced by remarks made by Reformer John Calvin who in his commentary on Acts 7:30 which speaks of Moses’ encounter with God in the wilderness of Sinai. It is part of Stephen’s speech to the Jewish Council after his arrest. Calvin saw in the account of Moses and the burning bush an appropriate metaphor or image of the church which is continually subject to the fire of persecution yet is ever kept from being consumed to ashes. The church is sustained not by its own strength but by the presence of God in its midst.

Calvin’s description of the sufferings that the church and the faithful were and would endure resonated deeply with the Hugenot leaders. The Reformed faith had been declared illegal in France and its faithful adherents had been subjected to severe treatment in the preceding decades. Persecution had peaked eleven years earlier with the St, Bartholomew’s Day Massacre – an episode in which thousands of reformed believers in Paris and other major cities were slaughtered for their convictions.

The burning bush became a touchstone for the people of that time. That God would appear in the midst of an element that was known to destroy all that it touched and yet it survived was assurance to them that they could endure the persecution assured that God would be with them.

How  the symbol became the official seal and emblem of the Presbyterian tradition of Reformed churches happened largely by accident. We need to remember that the  Presbyterian faith was in direct conflict with the established church of the day – the Roman Catholic tradition. Sad to say, but great persecutions from both sides led to the repression of the Protestant tradition for many decades after the time of John Knox. In 1690 – after the reestablishment of Presbyterianism – the Church of Scotland tasked an Edinburgh printer named George Mosman with printing records of their annual general assemblies. Mosman took the liberty of including on the title page of the first and subsequent published Acts of the Assembly a circular image of the burning bush, complete with the superscribed Latin phrase Nec tamen consumebatur – yet it was not consumed and set against a square backdrop with Scottish thistles in each corner.  In light of both the suffering they had endured and the divine protection they had experienced throughout the preceding century, the leaders deemed it an appropriate emblem for the church. It had also been adopted and used by prominent Scottish Covenanters such as Samuel Rutherford and appeared in many of his writings.

The image also was used on the coins that were produced called “communion tokens” that were used by the church for decades and were given out to those whose profession of faith and commitment to the covenant allowed them to participate in the Lord’s Supper.

As Presbyterianism spread throughout the world from the 17^th century onward, the Scottish and Irish emigrants typically carried with them some version of the symbol. The image is found on the crests of Presbyterian churches in Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The Burning Bush has remained an image that represents the suffering of the church in this time, the abiding and preserving presence of God in the midst of the church and its people, and the self-revelation of God to the people. Our ancestors who were part of the original Reformed movement embraced the emblem of the burning bush as a reminder that God is with his people and that he will ultimately sustain them through whatever trials they may face and whatever joys they may experience.

Just as the bush was not consumed, so it is that the people of God will not be consumed. The presence of God in the midst of the fire revealed a power able to overcome even the most destructive of forces known to the world. In that moment, Moses came to know the God who had walked with his ancestors, who had guided them from their homeland to new lands, who had provided a way for them to survive challenges of famine and who now was prepared to take them from a place of slavery to a new land – a land of milk and honey, a promised land.

God had truly heard the cry of the people and had determined to bring their suffering to an end. But to come to that place of freedom, they would need to take a journey that would test them in body, mind, and spirit. The expectation was that they would bond together as a people and accept the covenant made between them and God. They would come to depend on God for their very lives.

We may not find ourselves oppressed as the people of Israel were in Egypt nor as persecuted as Christians in many parts of the world but we can still take hope and courage from the image of the burning bush. We can be confident that God is still there in the midst of the most destructive things we might ever face and know that his presence, his love, his mercy, and his grace will never leave us.

“I am who I am. I will be who I will be,” said the Lord to Moses.

AMEN