Editorial

Do not put your trust in princes.—Psalm 146:3

Whether we like it or not, we are political beings. The important question is how we live out our political life. And more important, as Nelson Kraybill makes clear, is where our allegiance lies.

“Politics” derives from the Greek work “polis,” often translated “city” but primarily denoting a decision-making body. Politics reflects the workings of a community of people making decisions together in order to carry out their goals, the kind of life they’ve set for themselves. That dynamic is a key element of Mennonite spirituality.

While “politics” carries a complex of meanings related to governing or setting policy, it also has for many a pejorative sense (“Oh, that’s just politics.”) that identifies it with seeking power at the expense of truth or justice. The politics of Jesus, which John Howard Yoder used as the title for his groundbreaking book, is one of servanthood, not dominance. This kind of decision-making out of a unity in the Spirit, where no one person dominates, is what the church is called to practice.

Unfortunately, for most of us, our sense of politics is determined by individualism and self-interest, the basis of the modern nation-state. This understanding runs counter to the Christian narrative, writes Tripp York in The Purple Crown, “which understands the condition of true human freedom as participation with God and God’s creation.”

Our nation has come through a so-called political season and elected a new president. This process has dominated much of our media’s attention. That narrative tempts us to “put our trust in princes,” whether to find hope in the presidency of Barack Obama or to find despair.

As followers of Jesus Christ, however, we belong to a different political body with a different government and leader. We may mouth this truth each Sunday, but does it affect our daily living? Does our belonging to Jesus affect the decisions we make about what we do, where we go and how we spend our money?

The early Anabaptists called Matthew 18:15-20 “the rule of Christ.” This passage is about decision-making, about discernment, figuring out who’s telling the truth in a conflict and what is the right course of action. It includes two references to “the church” and concludes with the familiar sentence, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (verse 20).

We experience that presence in our worship, as we name Jesus our Lord, as we celebrate Communion. York writes: “The Eucharist makes participation in the divine economy possible because it makes particular claims on the participants’ bodies. In the physical act of eating and drinking Christ, we commit ourselves to a life like Christ’s life.”

In Mennonite spirituality (at least in theory), community discernment is a big deal. It’s how we are to read the Bible. We study it individually, but we are to talk about what it means with our brothers and sisters. It also emphasizes the participation of everyone.

Four of the articles in this 40-page special issue are about Mennonite congregations. As we seek to live faithfully in the empire that is America, we dare not act alone. We need one another to figure out what we are to do, where we are to go and how we are to spend our money.

Our culture tells us our faith is to be something private and to be lived out “spiritually” (as opposed to bodily). But “if the church is to be true to its specific vocation, the making of disciples of all nations,” York writes, “then it must practice her own politics rather than adopt the politics of those that surround her.”

We practice politics as we gather together in worship and make decisions about how we are to serve our Lord faithfully. And such service will bear witness that our allegiance is to the Lamb, not to war-making nations.

Our service will involve complex, difficult decisions. Our Lord does not call us to separate ourselves from a hurting world in order to gain some sense of purity. We serve not to maintain our lifestyle but to bring healing and hope to the world. That may involve the nitty-gritty politics of schools, taxes or health care. But we do so in service of the Servant who is our King.