Moses, a man after my own heart

One thing that I really appreciated about seminary, despite the sermon below, was the chance to laugh. Dr. Cook especially taught using a lot of humor and pointed out the humor in the Hebrew Bible (a section of liturature I had assumed was lacking in the humor department). It is with my humor lenses on that I read the passage from Deuteronomy for Proper 10.

I love Moses' no nonsense style. Essentially he tells the stiff-necked people, "This isn't too hard to understand!" I love that about Moses, he's a man after my own heart. He tells the people the word, and expects them to listen. He's not interested in going back again and again to get a new word for them, he's told them, they need to hold onto it. I like that he expects something from the people. So often, especially in seminary, it seems that the lowest common denominator is the best we can do. We spoon feed people assuming they're dumb and/or lazy. We don't expect them to do the work of faith. We don't expect the gospel to make a difference in their lives. We assume its too hard for them. We assume it is too far away. Well its not. We need to give people the benefit of the doubt, even if it is tounge and cheek as we say; "Surely what we are asking isn't too hard!"