Good morning everyone. It is wonderful to be here and worship together.
How shall I begin? Maybe with Howard Zinn’s premise. Howard Zinn, as many of you know, was a peace activist deeply opposed to the Vietnam War, and the author of such books as, The People's History of the United States, which focussed on the perspectives of Native Americans, African Americans, Trade Unionists and Feminists.
Howard Zinn writes this in another book entitled, You Can't Stay Neutral on a Moving Train:
" I start from the supposition that...all we have to do is think about the state of the world today .. to realize that things are all upside down." Zinn’s observation of the world’s “upside downness” might be applied to any age, don’t you think? The marginalized, poor and powerless people could always have told of what is drastically amiss in the world, if any were inclined to listen. As did Jesus, himself. In the occupied Holy Land of Jesus’s day, his life, death, and resurrection all attest to the truth that “the world did not know him." (John 1:10). Yes, a great deal was and is amiss in the world that God, nevertheless, has so loved.