Twice in the gospel narrative Jesus declares the ultimate either/or of his life and teaching: “You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Pathetic imagination is incapable of hosting an alternative world and remains quite satisfied to have its sphere of possibility circumscribed to the small world in front of us. Thus in the confines of pathetic imagination, the claims of prophetic imagination are outrageous and incredible.

We prefer to have “only God.” But the God of the gospel is not on offer in that way. That is why Jesus insisted that we cannot have only one “great commandment.” There are always two.

The crisis to be addressed is the elemental recognition that we are double-minded, and the double-mindedness is ultimately exhausting: You cannot serve God and wealth.

Naboth continues to cry out in every verdict of dispossession. His cry sounds among us in many different cadences and in many different dialects, including among us the cadences and dialects of Black Americans. What a work for the church to be listening and responding to that shrill cry!

The wealthy, the powerful, and those who produce the poison of our planet count on the rest of us to be compliant, even if in dissent. The spell of such fearful compliance can be and will be broken only by the few good women and men who dare to march to a different drummer, work from a different script, and act in ways congruent with their conviction of a world held in the good hands of the creator.

The absolute prohibition and the qualification that follows together exhibit the characteristic work of Torah teaching that must mediate between absolute theological, covenantal claims and the reality of lived life.

It is the work of the church to bear witness to the unnoticed reality of war: every soldier has a mother. Every family grieves the death of a son-soldier, even enemy families.

Such an accent on the power of God, moreover, has been a long-running seduction for the church, as we have imagined the power of God to be not unlike the worldly power of mighty empires and imperial rulers. Insofar as the church has been seduced in this regard, attentiveness to the “weakness of God” may be a deep and significant corrective.

Such an accent on the power of God, moreover, has been a long-running seduction for the church, as we have imagined the power of God to be not unlike the worldly power of mighty empires and imperial rulers. Insofar as the church has been seduced in this regard, attentiveness to the “weakness of God” may be a deep and significant corrective.