Religious, But Not Spiritual

In 1997, a 17 year-old Lillian was off to college in Colorado. On any given day in those early weeks, my “look” was pretty predictable – carpenter jeans, an oversized sweater, Vans skater shoes, and a green, woven bracelet around my wrist with four letters stitched in white – W.W.J.D. Anyone remember what those letters stood for? Right, “What would Jesus do?”

These bracelets were a common site in the 90s and I did a little research into the origin of this trend. Apparently, notable Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon used the phrase “What would Jesus do?” several times in a sermon he delivered in 1891. He attributed the phrase to book written in Latin in the early 1400s by Thomas á Kempis called Imitatio Christi (The Imitation of Christ). Then later, in 1896, a theologian and author named Charles Sheldon wrote a book entitled In His Steps and subtitled What Would Jesus Do? Sheldon’s book was a great inspiration for one of my favorite theologians, Walter Rauschenbusch, who popularized the idea of the “social gospel,” which seeks to connect how the teachings of Jesus speak to the conditions we encounter in the world around us and should inform our response to them.

So how did this idea make it all the way from a book originally in the 1400s to my wrist in 1997? Well, apparently the resurgence of this abbreviation originated at Calvary Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan, where a youth group had the idea of identifying with this phrase and wearing bracelets as a reminder to be more like Jesus in everyday life. The trend took off in the 90s and moved beyond bracelets to t-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, and more. The follow-up campaign “Fully Rely on God” or F.R.O.G. did not perform quite as well.

While I wasn’t involved much in youth group or really in church at all for a good long while once I headed off to college, I was drawn to this idea of reflecting more often and more intentionally on how the way I lived and the decisions I made connected to the way of Jesus. Yes, in my late teens and early 20s, I confess I joined the camp of “Spiritual, but not religious,” or as the Pew Research Center calls them SBNRs. Anyone know where that term came from? Apparently, this is a term lifted from online dating platforms that took off in the early 2000s!

Just a few weeks ago, the Pew Center released some new data on spirituality among Americans. Overall, 7 in 10 American adults describe themselves as spiritual in some way and 22%, one-in-five, and moving closer to one-in four, Americans describe themselves as Spiritual but not religious. Compared with religious adults, SBNRs are relatively young (58% of adult SBNRs are under age 50, compared with 45% of religious Americans) and more likely to identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents. SBNRs and religious Americans are similar in their gender composition, with women accounting for a slight majority in each group. The most common response that SBNR Americans give when asked to select a religious identity is “nothing in particular” (38%).

We know that, even before the pandemic, Americans have been deserting organizations, and religious institutions are part of that. The Presbyterian Foundation reports that membership at PCUSA churches has declined 51% in the past 15 years, a sharper decline than all other mainline peers. All in all, these statistics do not create a feeling of joy and excitement for all of us, who find ourselves here in church on a Sunday morning.

Here is what I see, as someone who has grown into an adult and been ordained into ministry over the years that the mass exodus of religious institutions has been unfolding. People are disillusioned with church, especially young people. They see religion and spirituality as two separate things, and that church buildings are filled with more of the former than the latter. In recent years they have seen the alignment with religion and politics in more insistent and uncomfortable ways, and feel that religion is closely tied with submission while spirituality more closely tied with freedom. They see religion as rigid, dead, and stocked with inadequate answers, while spirituality seems to be creative, lively and driven by curiosity and openness.

 Does their assessment of religion describe us? Maybe? Not exactly. I hope not.

 Let’s look at our text today in the Book of Acts. In the surrounding chapters, Paul is traveling to churches throughout the region, checking in, answering questions and further making the case for early Christianity. He returns to the church in Ephesus in our text today and he comes across some disciples and as he is talking with them he asks them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?”

Now, here is where we have to take a pause and wonder something…why did he ask them that? Was this a routine line of questioning for Paul in his travels, or did he see something that prompted him to ask this question? In the chapter before this one, we see an example of a man named Apollos boldy preaching the scriptures until he is taken aside by two of Paul’s ministry assistants Pricilla and Aquila, who educate him on “the way of God more accurately.” This text along with our text this morning suggest that the way Paul and his comrades operated was to first view disciples in action, and then offer feedback or corrections.

So this begs the question again what did Paul see in these disciples in Ephesus that led him to ask, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” The Holy Spirit is one of the elements imparted through Baptism, and the ancient Greek word used in scripture was parakletos which translates as “paraclete.” The meaning of this term is that the Holy Spirit is to be our advocate, counselor and helper in our lives as Christians. I often think that the Holy Spirit is what makes our faith come alive in practice – it is what guides us in our choices and in our actions as we seek to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

So again, what prompted Paul’s question? What made Paul wonder if the Holy Spirit, the advocate, counselor and helper was present in the lives of these disciples? We’ve talked about the definition of being Spiritual, but not religious, but could it have been that these disciples that Paul encountered were “religious, but not spiritual?” Maybe they knew the scriptures and had all the right answers about Jesus, but perhaps there was something in the way they spoke about the faith or the actions they took or didn’t take that suggested to Paul that these disciples were religious, but not spirit-filled?

When the disciples answered Paul, they noted that they had undergone the Baptism of John the Baptist, which was a Baptism of repentance. This was after all the same Baptism that Jesus himself submitted to early in his ministry. But Paul reminds them, or maybe even educates them for the first time, that to be a follower of Christ involves both a Baptism of repentance but also a Baptism that opens us up to be vessels of the Holy Spirit. It’s both an act that says “I’m sorry for the shortcomings in my life,” but also an invitation for the Spirit of God to fill us up and be our advocate, counselor and helper from that moment on.

Paul’s question to those disciples is also his question to us today. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” The world around us has a lot of spiritual-but-not-religious people, but the world around us also has a lot of religious-but-not-spiritual people. People like the disciples that Paul encountered in Ephesus that day long ago. Paul reminded them that a Baptism of repentance is not enough. Unlike what so many contemporary Christian music songs would suggest, our faith is not only about our personal relationship with God being “all good.” We have to be willing to open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit. We have to allow ourselves to be changed in that very powerful way, a way where the Spirit of God is helping us in our choices and actions. We have to allow the Spirit to guide us toward difficult work and uncomfortable realizations. Repentence is not enough. It’s too focused on the self and the way of Jesus is always, always to look beyond the self and see the many others in the world around us, and our relationship to them, and our responsibility to them.

I have seen religious but not spiritual people. Lots of them. The know the scriptures, and can rapidly fire them at you like a shootout at the OK Corral. They claim to know the answers. But are the allowing the Holy Spirit to be their counselor and guide?

If the world around us is increasingly spiritual but not religious, especially the younger people who we so desperately need in this community here, then maybe Paul’s question is a good question for us to pose to ourselves. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” Is the Spirit alive in our community? Maybe we should worry less about those who are spiritual but not religious and more about those who are religious but not spiritual. Are there ways that we need to turn up the focus on the Spirit and turn down the focus on religion to reflect the needs of those who are not here on Sundays? Would we be willing to do that?

So, my push to all of us this year is to hear Paul’s question on a loop in our ears – “did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” We need to be thinking about how that spirit lives and moves in us and guides us in our lives and in the work we do in the name of Christ. The Holy Spirit WILL guide us. If we receive it. If we heed the wisdom it imparts. The Spirit will tell us what decisions to make and what steps of faith we are to take.

Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers? Take that question with you this year. Amen.