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Soooooo, Jethro? Not the most memorable character in scripture is he? Chances are that more people know the name as the middle name of a grumpy character on NCIS, than that of a major player in the life of Moses. Now there is a name we can recognize… Moses. He did it all, spoke to God in a burning bush, freed the Israelites from slavery, led them to the Promise Land, parted the red sea, even came down the mountain with written instructions from God. Wow, no wonder we all know his name. But he wouldn’t have been all those things, done all those things, without that somewhat overlooked man from Midian, Jethro. So let’s keep with Moses for one more second, just to set the scene.
The story goes something like this, Moses fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian for abusing an Israelite slave and wandered in the desert for a while. Eventually he came to a well, and found a rough and tumble group of shepherds, sunbaked and hardened from a life spent outdoors, faced off against a group of 7 young women and girls. Moses again takes action in support of the seven young women, and earns the good favor of their father, Jethro, who offers Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. Moses marries Zipporah, and tends Jethro’s sheep for 40 years, or a very long time, until God speaks to him from that burning bush and sends him to free the Israelite from slavery in Egypt. During the various unpleasentnesses of their escape from Egypt Moses sends Zipporah and their two sons to live with Jethro, I assume for their safety, though some sources suggest they divorced. Our passage from scripture this morning recounts Jethro returning Zipporah and the boys to Moses, so let’s leave Moses now, and look at things through Jethro’s eyes.
Jethro is described as a priest of Midian. There are a number of differing opinions on Jethro within Jewish scholarly circles, but the fact that he was a priest of some sort is fairly well accepted. He may have been a polytheist, or a believer in many Gods, which would make sense given his statement that God is the greatest of all the Gods. When I initially conceived of this service, I intended it to revolve on that idea, that God is great, because it is true, God is great. And it is largely God’s greatness that sways a faithful man to name God greatest of all, even participating in blessing God and making offerings to God. It is interesting that before Jethro blesses God for the great things that God has done to free the Israelite people, no one else has done so… not Moses, not Aaron, no one.
But being me, this story sent me down a rabbit hole. Hold God before all things, this statement rings of Jethro’s statement, seems related if not the same, I would also rope in things like, let go and let God. These phrases are beautiful, and in my experience dangerous, or at the least toxic. I was only a few days into parenting my second child, sleepless, stressed out, scared for the future, or I was wrestling with the loss of my father a few years ago, I say or not because I’m unsure, but because in both of those situations I was offered that advice. When my wife and I shared the anxiety we felt, struggling to parent a new baby who had yet to find comfort in the cold brightness of this world, we were told to let that anxiety go and focus on God, that’s all fine and good, but our anxiety was still there, real, no less exhausting because of God’s Greatness or because we decided to put God first. Similarly, when my dad died, I was told to let go of things and let God take them. Greif doesn’t work that way. I know that those individuals who offered that advice did so out of the deepest love, and compassion, but as they so often do, their words missed their mark, and I was left feeling a little more bitter, a little more angry…So what am I saying, that Jethro’s exclamations of God’s greatness were hollow and poisonous to those in search of deeper faith in god, or to those whose lives continue despite their faith… no quite the opposite…
To some of you, in the throes of pain and loss, struggling to make it through, this will not be the message you need to hear, these words will not be right for you in this moment, and that’s ok. To those of you in that group, I can simply say, I am here, to listen, to walk at your side, to sit silently, or to blather on about ridiculous things in an attempt to distract for the shortest of moments, I am not afraid of profanity filled rants, or body shaking sobs, I will hold your hand, and I will help you find the help that you need. And as I look out on this congregation and think of all those who aren’t here in person, I see many others who would do the same. If you are in need, you are not alone, and the pain you feel is valid and it is ok to feel it. You are loved, by all of us, and indeed by God.
But in the story from the scripture this morning Jethro is not speaking to a grieving people, he is speaking to the leaders of a people on the precipice of their future, and he is exclaiming the greatness of God. What does that have to do with us, sure God is great, but is that really sermon worthy? It’s kind of a given isn’t it? Well, Jethro lets us dive a little deeper into things, maybe gives us an especially helpful perspective. Jethro as I mentioned earlier, was probably a priest of Midian, which was a nation that most likely sat on the western shore of the Arabian Peninsula. Given what scholars know, and what he said in this morning’s scripture, he was more than likely a polytheist, and thus did not hold God as the only God, but as the greatest of all the Gods. Midrash, a non-canonical Jewish scriptural commentary of a sort, suggests that Jethro did eventually become a true convert. Whether this is true or not, it seems safe to say that Jethro had an evolving relationship with God. So how do you and I relate to this polytheistic individual determining where God sits in the hierarchy of their own pantheon, well, I think we mirror that reality rather closely, as individuals and as a society.
Human beings have a tendency to obsess, and revere, even worship things or the pursuit of things that they find attractive. I cannot count the number of times I have heard someone relate Tom Brady to an idol, or some deified status, and the same can be said for most sports teams, for actors and actresses, for hobbies, interests, and even for work. Political issues, social justice issues, money, time, physical appearance, our families… people seem to need a focus and a center, so we create them or cling to things to fill that space in our lives. Sometimes, those things we cling to can be the darker things too, pain, loss, loneliness, anger, lust, jealousy, and the list goes on! We deify, we create our own personal pantheon of gods, lower case g, and those things become our center. How might a life centered on money effect the world, how about one centered on the Kardashians, or on remote controlled cars… ok I am being a bit silly, but seriously how do those things we focus on, ground ourselves in, revere, or even worship shape our lives, or how we effect the lives of those around us? We aren’t that different from Jethro after all… we might not use the word god to describe those things we worship, but nevertheless we collect them, ground ourselves in them, and center our lives around them.
Even the most worthwhile of focuses can get lost when it becomes the center of a life, feeding the hungry is wonderful, until pursuing that blinds us to the world’s other injustices, loving our children is to be applauded, but when our lives revolve around that love, it can eclipse the needs of the very children we hold so close. There is only one “thing” great enough to sustain and support a whole life, and that is God, however you know God.
Now before you attentive listeners start to point out that I seem to have tossed God in the same bucket as Tom Brady, just let me explain. I love the idea that Jethro becomes a true convert in time, accepting the one God, and letting go of all others. I love that the process appears to begin by placing God before all others, and that with time that recognition becomes a recognition of God’s singular greatness. I love it because there is room for humanity there, room for me with my pantheon of idols, room for me to move closer to God, room for you to do the same. There is room for the overwhelming weight of loss, room for the dizziness of exhaustion, room for all of life, and at the front of the line, the top of the pile, there is room to place God, a perfect permanent, promise. One we can work toward, one we can learn from, and draw strength from, until we are strong enough let go of all of our idols. In the end the good news is simple, and Jethro nailed it first try… Good is Great! Amen