Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 8474 Plough Quarterly • Autumn 2016 God, which was inaugurated at Pentecost. In Matthew 23–25, Jesus teaches his disciples, and through them the body of Christ today, the ethic that should guide their political role during this interim. Though it’s only possible here to sketch out the main contours of this ethic, its main features include: • the insight that the body of Christ has been stationed in a disintegrating, and therefore violent, world. The church is to confront this violence with nonviolence and with the spirit of suffering love; • the clear conviction that only a close relation- ship with Jesus and loyalty to him will enable us to stand firm in our confrontation with evil; • the practice of mercy, that is, the foundational virtue of providing love and care to the hungry, thirsty, homeless, naked, sick, and imprisoned. In accordance with this ethic, there is only one possible way for the body of Christ to respond to the vulnerable and marginalized, including today’s refugees and migrants: with unconditional love. In a nut- shell: we must practice mercy. Yet that is not all that Matthew 23–25 can teach us about the Christian’s role in politics. There is a second lesson, found in Matthew 25:1–30, that we must also take to heart. Here Jesus tells two parables that deal with boundaries and limited capabilities: the Parable of the Ten Virgins and the Parable of the Talents. Here Jesus calls for the prudent use of the natural and spiritual talents entrusted to us – precisely because we are accountable to him for how we use them. Wisdom in using these talents is expressed both through practicing generosity and through remaining aware of our own limits. We could call this an ethic of stewardship. Jesus’ message in these two parables is in accord with the interim nature of politics: “The present form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31). In this transitory world, God has instituted ordinances to restrain the power of evil, ordinances to which, for the time being, both believers and nonbelievers are subject. The relationship of the body of Christ to the state, then, must be one of distance – but also one of loyalty. How does this look in practice? We can gain insight by examining the role of human rights. Though the origins of the concept of human rights are diverse, any attempted genealogy will end up acknowledging that the two most important sources are (1) the Enlightenment’s rationalistic theory of natural law and (2) the core biblical axiom that every human being is created in the image of God, and so enjoys an inalienable dignity. Human rights, by their very nature, precede the political realm and all positive law; they remain valid regardless of whether a given political regime recognizes them or not. None- theless, these rights remain empty without a political community that enforces them in a concrete way, enshrining them as both the source and the measure of its laws. This is why the Christian church has such a strong interest in the healthy functioning of the political community surrounding it and of the rule of law. In most of the world today, the political community can only function health- ily if it is secured by democratic legitimacy, usually expressed in the form of a national state. Since this is so, the church cannot regard the national state in which it finds itself as something foreign. Rather, the ethic of steward- ship demands that the church see itself as both responsible for, and loyal to, the state. Exactly this is what the ethic of stewardship demands. The church must oppose both kinds of exclusion, whether from the left or the right.