J-Curve Session 17: (Pastor Matt Carter, Chapter 17)
Class Description: Session 17, Chapter 17
Chapter 17: Celebrating Christ Bearers: Rediscovering Hidden Saints
While attempting to live out ‘the vision of the good’ that PM has put before us in chapter 16 we can easily fall off on one side or the other - either into humility as an end in itself or into faith as the ultimate end. In this chapter we’ll more fully and accurately fill up this ‘vision of the good’ as we consider saints who moved to the place of others-centered-love.
Class Notes:
1. Let’s begin by reviewing what PM put before us last week as this ‘vision of the good’. Look at p. 139. How do we want to express this vision in our own words? What is it?
2. P. 143 Read entire interchange involving Joni thru p. 144.
i. As you understand these paragraphs, why did Joni begin singing? What did she overcome by singing?
ii. Look at the opening two sentences of the paragraph that connects these two pages:
1. Have you ever been given reason to pause when you see someone respond reflexively with godly behavior in a difficult situation? Why is it convicting?
2. How has Joni arrived there?
3. How did Joni embody the good?
3. P. 144 second-to-last paragraph:
a. How did Francis’ actions in this paragraph embody his love for Christ?
b. How can humility like this turn into and end in itself? How can we love humility for its own sake and what is missing from the equation when we do that?
4. On p 146 PM demonstrates how Luther and the reformation did much to correct the view of humility for its own sake by rightly demonstrating the critical role of faith as part of the equation. He then reiterates the way we can over-emphasize faith with the story of a pastor who confesses from the pulpit. He then lands on p 147 with this statement, “(T)he good itself, is a life overflowing with an other-centered love.”
a. Faith is active, self-forgetful humility is active, but neither as an end in themselves. How does love complete this equation? Why is others-centered love the place where we’re intended to land?
5. P 147 further down.
a. Why are those who reflect the beauty of Christ so often invisible? What did you think about the account of John Skilton? Have you ever seen that glow?
6. P 148 Edith Shaeffer quote.
a. Have you ever seen a servant of servants and thought, “If I can see that the back of that guy’s head when I get to heaven, I’ll consider myself a very fortunate person?”
7. P 148 What does secular liberalism strip away from the ‘vision of the good?
8. P 149 “If you miss the J Curve, you won’t value Christ bearers or be drawn by the beauty of love, a vision of the good.”
a. Interesting quote here especially on the heels of a paragraph describing the standing ovation that Mother Teresa received because of her love for the dying poor. Clearly, most in the audience that day (Harvard) didn’t really get the J Curve, yet they were drawn into the aesthetic of Mother Teresa’s sacrificial life. So what is PM getting at here? Why won’t we be drawn into the beauty of love if we miss the J Curve?
9. Of all the ways that PM has described falling short of authentic J Curve living, how do you feel most easily drawn away to miss it? Do you tend to stop with faith? Do you embrace humility for its own end? Do you simply reject suffering?