I was just trying to make my point in a dramatic way last Sunday.
I was preaching on Ephesians 2:8-10 which says we are saved by grace, not works.
So I said that we are saved even if we were never to preform any good works in any significant way. We are saved, I said, even if we were to spend the rest of our lives doing nothing but watching Turner Classic Movies and eating bonbons.
The good we participate in is not something we do to earn our salvation. It is a way of increasing the joy and meaning in our lives.
We are invited to participate in good works not because it is our obligation and duty but because it is a kick.
If we do good only to avoid getting scolded or judged or punished, we'll probably end up doing things that are somebody's definition of good and may not be good at all. If we do good for the pure joy of it, we'll be more likely to pick something that really is good. God save us from unhappy "do-gooding."
Something like that.
Several people picked up on the Turner Classic Movies line and have repeated it in emails and on Facebook.
So I want to be very clear that I did not mean to say we are saved by watching Turner Classic Movies. God and God alone is in the saving business, as one of my teachers Kortright David used to say.
But, still, there have been weeks when spending my day off watching TCM has sure felt like a lifesaver.
I like that. I may steal it and preach it one of these days. I've been reading "Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon. He says, "How does an artist look at the world? First, you figure out what's worth stealing, then you move on to the next thing."
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