ONE APP...ENDLESS AWESOME

I have two sons. The oldest is autistic. His name is Johnny. He is this 3 year old child in the body of a 25 year old man. He is one of the most loving, innocent, joyful human being you will ever meet. Johnny does not have capacity for abstract thinking. He has a very limited vocabulary. His favorite word is awesome. When he was very young, every time he did something like putting on a sox, or button his shirt, his mother would say: “Johnny that is awesome.” So he knows awesome stands for something good.

Awesome is Johnny's greeting and goodbye word. Awesome is the word that settles his world.

So we bought him several T-shirts with the word awesome on them. “The definition of awesome: you are looking at it” “So awesome, it hurts”, “Anybody can be cool, but awesome takes practice”, “I brought the awesome, what did you bring?”

His favorite fast food place is Chick-fil-A. Every Saturday we take him there. It is part of his routine. Few months ago, we were eating our french fries and I noticed a phrase on the side of the paper container: ONE APP...ENDLESS AWESOME

This is what a senior manager for digital experience for Chick-fil-A said about this app:

“We know time is valuable, and we’re excited to offer this new convenience that will empower guests to order what they want, when they want it and exactly how they want it, all from their mobile device,”

So the whole purpose of this app is to make your visit to the chick file, an awesome experience.

And do you know how many apps are out there promising to do exactly that in various aspects of your life?

As of June 2016 Android users can choose between 2.2 million apps. Apple's App Store has about 2 million apps.

So we have access to millions of apps to make our life easier in ordering food, communication, education, transportation, banking, etc. You name the need. And there is an app for that. Let's say you are watching a movie in a theater and but you want to go to the bathroom so badly. But you are afraid to miss part of the movie. There is an app to help you choose the best time to go without missing the story. It is called Run and Pee.

But is there an app for life itself? Is there an app for for an awesome life?

I believe there is, because why would God create us and put us on this planet unless it is to have an awesome life? Why would our birth be for anything less than that? Why would a loving God want us to suffer and struggle?

Think of a human parent. I will share my experience. When we were pregnant, I was hoping and dreaming and praying for an amazing life for our children. Never for a moment, I said: “I am going to bring this child into this world, so that he can suffer and struggle. I can't wait to watch him writhe in pain, I can't wait to see him fall off the cliff and break his leg...I can't wait to see him depressed and kill himself.”

If o sane parent would ever want such disastrous fate for his children, then why do you think God, the source of all goodness would want us his children to live half baked lives? Why would God want us to marinate in our misery while dragging our feet thru the valley of tears and end up with a miserable existence?

God doesn't; like the owners of Chic file, God has created an app for us to have endless awesome. But where is it? How do you download that? Is it free or you have to pay for it?

Yes it is free and it is available to all of us. But you cannot download it from the App store.

The One App that can give you endless awesome is not among the 4.2 million apps that humans have created. It is not out there in the Icloud. You don't have to download it because You came into this world, pre-installed with that App.

Everybody has one. But there are 3 problems associated with this app. Denial, disregard, and ignorance. It is not the fault of the creator of the App. It is our fault. Some people deny that it exists in them; others know they have it, but don't pay any attention to it and most people don't know how to activate it.

Lets face it. You can have the best app on your phone. But if you don't switch on the phone and activate the app it is of no use.

Do you know what is the App that is already installed in you? The answer is in Genesis 27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

The divine image within you is that amazing App that can provide you with endless awesome. God has installed it. But we have to activate it.

Humans are smart in so many ways. But when it comes to activating the divine app, they are ignorant immature, lazy, careless, clueless, bored, tired, and too busy. People have all the excuses not to activate this app and plenty of time for everything else...then they wonder they don't have an awesome life?

Nicodemus in today's gospel is such a guy. He was a pharisee who belonged to the ruling council. He was a religious man. Yet he felt he was missing something in his life. He was not having an awesome life. If he had, he would not have come to see Jesus...he was looking for something more...and he knew Jesus had the key to that.

And Jesus says to him; No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. It is important to notice that Jesus does not say, no one can enter the KG...we have this notion that KG is a place some where up there, where we can enter after we die. We rarely think of of KG as something that we can experience right now, on this earth, during this life. Jesus said; The KG is within you; but we forget that don't take it seriously.

Now Nicodemus takes those words literally and wonders how he could enter his mother's womb and be born again.

Actually the correct phrase is not “born again,” but “born from ABOVE” which means born of God...which we already are. We are all born of God. We are imprinted with the image of God at birth.

So born again means, remembering who you were at the time of your birth...a beautiful, innocent child, unaffected by the worries and cares of the world, untarnished by the shenanigans of the ego, uncontaminated by the temptations of of flesh, unattached to material possessions, untouched by the darkness of anger, envy, jealousy, pride, and greed, but with an unvarnished sense of security and an unlimited supply of love, peace and joy. That is what born again means.

So what happened? We grew up and we lost all our innocence.

Jesus wants us to go back to that sate of being...and it is possible even tho we are all grown up and in our 40s 50s or 60s. “It doesn't matter how old you are chronologically, what matters is how old you are Christologically.”

How alive is the Christ within you? How active is the Holy Spirit within you? How shining is the light within you? How tangible is the image of god within you? How vibrant is the breath of God within you? How visible is the peace within you? Those are the questions I want you to ponder today.

Let us see, you wake up in the morning and you pick up your phone to check your messages or go on face book or whats app. You press on that button, but guess what...the screen is not lighting up..phone is dead... What do you do? You don't throw the phone away...you don't blame the manufacturer. You may be little irritated, but like a responsible person you immediately go for the charger and plug it in...and viola in a few minutes, the screen comes alive...and you can use it again.

This is exactly how the divine app also works. It is inside you. But you have to activate it. For most people the battery is never charged...they are living their lives with an App inside that can provide endless awesome, but the battery has been dead for years or it was never charged.

How do we regularly charge and activate this divine image? Meditation is the best way to do it.

Another thing you have to do is inspirational reading. If you read only the National Inquirer, The People Magazine, Danielle Steele novels and social media postings, your divine image is not going to be charged and activated.

Another way to charge this divine image is weekly communal worship.

We are doing it and that is why we are here every week.

Let us pray that the whole humanity acknowledge the divine app, activate is on a daily basis and experience endless awesome every day....which is the fullness of life that Jesus promised.