Slumdog Millionaire!!!

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE!!!

Firstly for some light-hearted banter! Post Presidential Elections even as dark clouds of depression still hang somberly above the American economy (is anyone not aware?), we do see some “silver linings” of humour in them. For instance take this self-deprecatory cartoon humour of a bulging, balding entrepreneur quite used to striking big business deals in a golf course. He is seen to be saying with a golfing partner around in a golf course…“ I am in a period of depression, because my hair-line is under RECESSION and my waist-line under INFLATION”. Yet another joke doing the rounds about American giant companies pertains to their balance sheets. It is joked that in their balance sheets on the “left hand side (Liabilities), there is nothing right and on the right hand side (Assets), THERE IS NOTHING LEFT” (sic)! Be that as it may, let us wish the very best to President Obama and his dedicated team donning the "Doctors’ attire", even as try their best to revive a “sick” economy.

The much bandied about phrase in connection with the “revival” of the “fallen” American economy is the “bail-out package”. Was that not the “magic mantra word” even during the first stint of President Obama? Billions of dollars being pumped-in generously from the Government treasury makes up this “package”. Will it wrench good ole’ Uncle Sam out of his economic woes? Let us hope for the very best and pray. Now coming to the spiritual realm,in the context of the “fallen mankind” too, God the Almighty came-up with His own “bail-out package”, signed, so to speak, with the precious blood of His own Son.

Now in this sermon, let us under the following sub-titles consider both the background and the foreground of this Divine “bail-out” package, remembering all the while that a bailout is necessary only when a person is in the dock.

Firstly, the background…

PROSPERITY…

Before the “spiritual poverty” arrived, man created in God’s own Holy image (Genesis 1:27) was anything but a spiritual pauper. He and his better-half (responsible for more than half of his bitterness, later on) were “richly clothed” in holiness, so much so, with their hearts completely pure like that of little children, they never even felt the need to cloth themselves with anything! Is not the happy scene of the little children in their pristine innocence running around merrily in our homes oblivious of their nakedness even today a symbolic of the “holy days” before the Fall (Genesis 3:1-7)?

Now for a subject within a subject. Hey, a sermon is like a website, while browsing one site, you also hyperlink onto other incidental sites. Some years ago, an atheist thought, he had me cornered in a train journey. Now Yours truly has this habit of witnessing during any journey about the transformation the Saviour wrought in His life with his co-passengers. The results are good nine times out of ten but sometimes…you see... someone like this atheist is bound to cross my path. There he was, firing all types of “rational” questions to this innocent pastor who was trying his level best to be "all things to all men" (I Cor 9:21-23). Some of the questions went like this… “Did you see God”…”Is God male or female” …”How can you prove in an instant that Bible is true”. Now depending on the good Lord, who had promised to put the right words into my mouth at the right time (Luke 21:15), I answered “I believe the Bible is right…I believe the story of Adam and Eve going about naked in the age of innocence is right till they committed their act of sin, which opened their eyes to their new fallen condition making them cover their SHAME with fig leaves…if you do not believe in all these Biblical accounts…would you walk naked in this very train NOW in open defiance of the Biblical truth?” Talk of a knockout punch... a la Ali sending down Sunny Liston for a count…

Now coming back to our subject…

POVERTY…

Just as the giant American banks were responsible for their own penury (was it not plain stupidity sometime back to extend home loans left, right and center without properly checking the credit-worthiness of their clientele), Man by his wilful disobedience was responsible for his own impoverishment (Romans 5:12). Now deprived of his holy innocence, there he languished covering up his shame with fig-leaves (Genesis 3:7) which never were going to be sufficient to cover-up his nudity completely, so much so, God stepped in to cover him adequately (Genesis 3:21) with the skin of an innocent animal slain sacrificially for this purpose-A FORESHADOW OF CHRIST’S ATONING DEATH ON THE CROSS. Even today, the “good deeds” many perform to cover their sinfulness (Can we ever pay God off? Damn that thought!) are nothing but “inadequate fig leaves”, which can never be a sufficient substitute for “God’s way” of clothing us with His own righteousness at His “own terms”. Moving the analogy further, it can be said that when He provides clothes for us, it would be fitting even for a Royal wedding but if we insist on we wearing our own “threadbare clothes”, it would purely be our own fault (Matt 22:1-13)!