āNo one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.ā āJesus.
A quick note: Pay attention to what Jesus did and did not say. He didnāt say you couldnāt have both. He did say you couldnāt serve both. Money isnāt just a tool; itās a rival master. And masters donāt like to share.
Which brings us to the great American paradox.
Every Thanksgiving, we gather with friends and family to pause and give thanks.
Then Black Friday comes.
And the gratitude from the day before is pushed aside in pursuit of more.
Let me be clear, this isnāt a finger-pointing post; Iām in this, too.
Itās not that our gratitude is absent. It is often overwhelmed by the compulsions of a culture formed by hyper-individualism, consumer capitalism, and dopamine-driven urgency.
Studies in behavioral psychology show that scarcity cues, often dominant on Black Friday, such as limited-time sales or low-stock warnings, trigger fear-based responses in our amygdala.
The fear of missing out.
The fear of not having enough.
Or worse, the fear of not being enough.
And sadly, in America, those fears are often fueled by what I call a theology of more.
In too many American churches, the language of faith has been subtly co-opted by consumer logic. What was once a theology of dependence on God has been recast as a transactional spirituality, where divine favor is measured by material gain. Wealth becomes proof of righteousness, and poverty is silently coded as spiritual failure.
This framework not only distorts the teachings of Scripture on contentment and stewardship, but it also reinforces economic inequality by spiritualizing it.
Thatās another post for another day.
But as followers of Jesus, there is a better way.
A way not built on fear, but on trust.
Not accelerated by urgency, but anchored in enoughness.
A way that invites us to rest, resist, and remember who we are, and whose we are.
Not measured by consumption, but marked by contentment.
A way that dares to see Thanksgiving as a kind of Sabbath.
Because itās hard to stay thankful when we canāt stay still.
Walter Brueggemann captures it beautifully in his short book on Sabbath (one Iāll soon feature On My Shelfāpun intended).
He writes:
āThe way of mammon (capital, wealth) is the way of the commodity, that is, the way of endless desire, endless productivity, and endless restlessness without any Sabbath. Jesus taught his disciples that they could not have it both ways.ā
May we have the courage to choose the better way.
Happy trails.
Against The Grain
Against the Grain is the second newsletter from the āwith Sean Dreherā Substack. It focuses on culture, conscience, and curiosity. As a missional thinker, I remind myself that Paul said not to be conformed, he didnāt say not to be informed. In these writings, Iāll wrestle with the cultural realities (and assumptions) of our day and how we can process them as followers of Jesus. Itās my best attempt at imagining what Paul would say if he were writing a letter to America.