In the last post I pointed out that most churches don't, in fact, instantiate an alternative politics or economy. Intentional communities do embody a material politics, but most churches don't.
That said, churches do sacramentally display an alternative politics in the midst of the world. This sacramental display and embodiment of the kingdom of God in midst the world is what I'm calling sacramental witness. As a sacramental witness the church makes the politics of the kingdom of God visible within, to and for the world.
As a way to think about sacramental witness versus intentional community think of sacramental witness as a flash mob. In a flash mob people gather for a season, short or long, to enact something and make it visible. Then they disperse. The sacramental witness of the church is like a flash mob. The faithful gather to make the politics of the kingdom visible, and then they disperse. This sacramental witness sustains hope, provides encouragement, recalibrates the heart, galvanizes action, narrates a story, sets a moral direction, leavens the imagination, and makes visible a prophetic contrast to the political status quo.
According to my taxonomy, most churches are involved in two sorts of Christian political action. First, through their ministries of care and support they function as a leavening presence in their neighborhoods, cities and world. And in their ritual and sacramental life, churches also engage in sacramental witness, pointing themselves and the world toward the politics of the kingdom of God.
I'd like to also point out here that even non-religious protests and movements can engage in sacramental witnessing, making something heretofore invisible (or hard to visualize) visible in our midst. For example, I'd would argue that the Occupy Wall Street movement is best described as a sacramental witness, as a political flash mob. As students of Occupy will know, Occupy didn't make a lot of policy demands. In my taxonomy, Occupy refused to take the path of political realism by engaging the political machinery of democratic politics. This refusal to engage the American political system frustrated many.
So what was Occupy doing? When asked, those who participated in the movement repeatedly stated that the goal of Occupy was to make visible a different way of life, a different sort of politics, community, and world. In this, I would suggest that Occupy was acting as a sacramental flash mob, a group coming together less to offer policy recommendations than to make a new politics visible in the midst of the world. Occupy was, therefore, more about imagination than power. And this, I would argue, is similar to the sacramental witness of the church. That said, I'm not suggesting a theological equivalency between political witnessing and the gathered church, simply noting how gathered communities can make a politics visible, for a season, in the midst of the world.
And lastly, of course, imagination can stimulate different sorts of political action and activity of the sort I've already described. Changing imaginations can motivate people to take political action, changing, for example, how a person might vote on Election Day. But participating in a sacramental witness is distinct, in my taxonomy, from pulling a lever in a voting booth. You can do one or the other, and even both.
