Who is Mosaic Boston? What do we value? What is our mission? How are we going to fulfill our mission? Every year around this time, we pause and remind ourselves why we do what we do.

Since we live in a society that does its best to hide the fact of death and does everything possible to evade even the mention of it, it's fairly easy to go through your life hardly ever thinking of it. Then someone close dies. Then you're thunderstruck with the empty finality. Then you are overcome with a tsunami of overwhelming grief. What is this feeling? Where did it come from? What do I do with it? I have not been prepared for this. 

Is God ever surprised? Of course not. He knows all: past, present, and future. However, twice in the Gospels, Jesus "marvels," or is "taken aback." In Mark 6, the people of Nazareth (Jesus' home town), those who knew him best, refuse to believe in him. The text tells us "he marveled because of their unbelief." In some sense, he was unpleasantly surprised by their stubborn unbelief, and withdrew His presence and His power. 

Half a century ago, the psychologist Carl Rogers suggested that simply loving our children isn't enough--we have to love them unconditionally, for who they are, not for what they do. As children (and as parents) we intuitively know this to be true. We also know how rare truly unconditional love is, even in the most sacred relationships. 

We live in a culture intoxicated with scandals, especially high-profile ones. We find these highly entertaining. We just can't look away. Our particularly favorite scandals include some moralist, preaching against a particular sin, which they end up getting caught in. It's like a well-crafted joke. The hypocrite's preaching is the set up, the personal violation of the sermon, the punchline. We are amused by a ruined life.