Who added?

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (Acts 2:37-47, NRSVue)

There is a thought in the church that we bring people to God. I remember when I was young, and I had joined an evangelical denomination, and we would go door knocking and ask people if they were to die tonight, where would they go. We believed it was our duty, our obligation to borrow the word from Paul in the opening of the letter to the Romans, to convert people or bring them to God.

We can be baptized, but baptism is God’s gift of grace to us. Even in evangelical circles, baptism is the outward sign of an inward work, a work done by God, not us. We can plant seeds and water and tend to a loving relationship with the world, but as Acts tells us above, God adds to the numbers of the church.

This passage reminds me of the story from a pastor friend of mine who talked about the neighbor he met when he moved into a new neighborhood. They met over the fence in their backyards, and they introduced themselves. When the neighbor asked what my friend did, he was honest and said he was a pastor for a Lutheran church in town, and the neighbor said, oh, I don’t buy into all of the religious stuff, and that was that. They were still neighborly and had conversations about life, family, kids, troubles, and highs as neighbors do over the fence. My friend never brought up the church or religion except maybe when talking about work, but never to force it on his neighbor. And one day my pastor friend said he was standing in the pulpit about to give his sermon for the morning, and when he looked up he saw his neighbor there to listen. He never invited him with the words, You should come to church, he lived in such a way that his life preached the love of God in and through a neighborly relationship, and when his neighbor knew he needed something more, he knew where to look from the time my friend had spent with him.

We do not bring people to God; God does that in and through us loving the world.

Love the world.