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 84In the church, Christ receives a physical form that makes him visible and tangible in the world. Plough Quarterly • Winter 2017 23 How should the church relate to politics? There are moments when this perennial question becomes suddenly urgent. In August 1934, eighteen months after Hitler’s rise to power, Eberhard Arnold spoke to members of his community, the Bruderhof, whose German branch had already been raided twice by Nazi forces. For them, Christian witness to the state was no longer just theory. Arnold’s address had personal poignancy: among his listeners was his eighteen-year-old nephew Hermann, until recently an enthusiastic Nazi and member of the Storm Troopers. But Hermann had just experi- enced a conversion, requesting baptism and announcing that he would take the risky step of publicly repudiating Nazism. Eberhard set out to explain to the young man what kind of Reich (kingdom) he was signing up for by becoming part of the church of Jesus Christ. I t i s a n i m m e n s e ly w o n d e r f u l t h i n g when a human heart is touched and moved by God. This is something only God can do; no human has this power, as truly as God is God. For no one knows the thoughts of God except for God’s own Spirit (1 Cor. 2:11). The only human being able to show what is in God was himself born of the Holy Spirit: Jesus. The manner in which his birth through Mary took place is the unique sign and example for how every new birth from the Spirit takes place. The Spirit came to Mary. Mary believed, and received the living Word of God. Because she had faith, the Word took flesh and form from her. Today too the living Word wants to take human form: the eternal Christ wants to have a body. It is for this that the Holy Spirit is sent from the throne of the Father and of the Son. And this is why Christ broke down the barriers and walls through his cross – so that his new embodiment, his new manifestation among humankind, might come into being: the church (Eph. 2:14–16). Just as the eternal, living Word once took on a body as Mary’s son, so today it becomes flesh anew in the church. This is what the apostle means when he writes that a “mystery” has been entrusted to him, the mystery of the body of Christ (Col. 1:24–26). What does it mean that the church is Christ’s body? In the church, Christ receives a physical form that makes him visible and tangible in the world – otherwise the word body would be meaningless. (Theologians who speak of an invisible body of Christ only prove that there is a kind of nonsense of which theologians alone are capable. The apostles did not believe in ghosts.)