J-Curve Session 16: (Pastor Matt Carter, Chapter 16)

Class Description: Session 16, Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Recovering a Vision of the Good:  The Wonder of the J Curve

I’ve said to a number of folks that this book will take you apart in the most horrible of ways, and put you back together in the most wonderful of ways.  This chapter has been perhaps the scariest so far. Here PM holds up a vision of love that calls us into full immersion - losing ourselves for the benefit of others.  What he discusses here will likely identify the places in our own lives where we’ve embraced a therapeutic, self-protecting, self-cultivating definition of love. The beauty of being convicted in these ways is that it opens the door to embrace a beautiful and far more glorious vision of the love we’ve been invited to embody.

Class Notes:

PM begins this chapter discussing an interchange that he shared with Joni regarding the Church’s lack of attention toward people with disabilities.  He shares on p. 138... “I believe the problem is not bad theology but missing theology.  We know little about entering the dying and resurrection life of Jesus.  We lack a vision of the good - of what it’s like to embody the person of Jesus. The lack of the vision of the good distorts our vision of the gospel, of community, and effectively dumbs down holiness.

He then argues that we all have a vision of the good, but it’s a vision that lives in stark contrast to the apostle Paul’s vision.  P. 138 
“Almost all of our modern American visions of the good tend to move us up the Failure-Boasting Chart (wealth) or help us avoid slipping down (health).

Let’s read through Philippians 2:1-5...

Then working from that passage PM summarizes what he recognizes there as the apostle Paul’s vision of the good...  (T)o create an astonishing, multifaceted unity, which can happen only if ego (pride) disappears.  Then Paul shows us how to kill the ego by following the path of Jesus down to death.  It’s simple: for love to work, the ego must die.  The result?  A pristine picture of love purified of ego...  

He pleads for a radical decentering- the complete, ongoing death of self.  He wants the Philippians to love all the time, to become 24-7 lovers. He’s not dabbling at the edges of love; he’s moved to the very center.  There’s no “Give it a try” or “do your best,” no qualifying asides or caveats, but a cascade of pleas to allure the Philippians into a symphony of love.  Paul paints for us something almost entirely missing from preaching today - an alluring picture of the good.  He actually intertwines two distinct visions: the beauty of love and the beauty of what love creates (a Jesus community).

1.    I think at one level, and as a church community, we can be encouraged. We belong to a local body that recognizes people with disabilities and works to love them well. How do you see that taking place?

2.    Where do we fail or fall short 

3.    Is this vision of the good missing from our preaching and teaching?  Where could we improve?

4.    P. 140 bottom paragraph beginning w.  “Marcus Aurelius...  read through first paragraph of ‘The Therapeutic Vision on p. 141.

a.    How easy is it for us to climb inside, “We are all idiots in need of grace” and why is that perspective critical if we’re in any way to fulfill this vision of the good?

b.    How beautiful is this sentence?  “The gospel transformed ‘idiots’ into Christ bearers who lived lives of dying love.”?

c.     Work slowly through the paragraph right under the heading ‘The Therapeutic Vision’. Take it a concept at a time. To what extent have we heard this message?  To what extent have we embraced it?  Where have we said these things ourselves?  How close to home is PM hitting?

5.    Consider the chart in this section.  Do we agree w. PM assessment?  Would you and I actually be willing to reject the therapeutic call to love to embrace Paul’s call?

a.    In particular discuss the concept of the unbalanced selfand the words Effervescent and beautiful.

6.    Read the final paragraph of this section.  Are there any needy people in our lives who’ve cut off relationship with us - this being there criticism as they left?

7.    Read through the excerpt from B.B. Warfield’s sermon on Philippians 2 on p. 142 a paragraph at a time.

a.    Paragraph 1: It exhausts me to think about the stunning absence of Jesus’ self-concern. In what ways have we given ourselves permission to do exactly the opposite?  How do we cultivate ourselves?

b.    Paragraph 2: Speaking practically, what kind of sacrifice would be required for us to live in this way?  What would it look like, and do we actually believe that living in this way would be ‘worth it’?

c.     Paragraph 3: What kinds of freedoms would be wrapped up in living out this beautiful vision?  

i.     Could you live this way in relationship to your employer?

ii.     Your spouse?

iii.     Your children?

iv.     An annoying neighbor?

v.     A stranger who needs help?

vi. Someone you find repulsive?

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? 

J-Curve Session 26: (Pastor Matt Carter, Chapter 26)

Class Description: Session 26, Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Delaying the Resurrection for Love: Saying no to good desire

Sometimes resurrections don’t belong to us, but to the people for whom we’re enduring.  We have to look outside ourselves to recognize new life taking shape.

*** We are currently unable to produce video from this session due to technical difficulties.

Class Notes:

P 205 Philippians 1:21-23

21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;

1.    It’s not that the apostle actually has the ability to choose one of these resurrections for himself, but he’s wrestling with them.  Do you recognize the two options here?  What are the competing resurrections?

2.    P 206 Like Jesus, Paul doesn’t grasp at his right to be with the Father.  He leaves heaven behind.  He substitutes his joy at the prospect of being with Jesus for the needs of the churches.  Look at the chart on pp 206-7.  Do you remember the steps of love from several chapters ago?

a.    How are we identified with Christ as we reenact this process?

b.    Why are steps 1 and 2 so inextricably linked, and how do we go about step 1? What does that actually look like?

c.     In what way does step 3 transform suffering?

d.    Can step 4 become light and momentary?  How? 

3.    (R)emaining alive is death for Paul, while death by execution is life.  Paul is dying to die!  His love for Jesus-for the person-colors Paul’s life goals. Jesus’s enthronement, his physical presence in heaven, is as real for Paul as the book you are holding. He longs ‘to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.’ ....  IN this battle between the two great loves of Paul’s life, the church wins:  24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, (Phil. 1:24-25).... Love shapes the dying side of the J curve; it also shapes the rising side.

a.    Do you recognize Paul looking for resurrection here?  He’s scanning the horizon looking for it.  Interesting, he doesn’t just look for it in himself! Remember PM when he took Kim to Florida.  Where was he looking for resurrection? 

4.    P 208 But Paul, who made an actual journey to heaven, shapes his decision-making on the model of Jesus’s death.  Dying with Christ for the sake of love trumps his own desires and provides a map out of the maze of his personal feelings.

a.    Why is this map so important?  What inevitably happens without it?

b.    Who shapes our resurrections?

5.    P 209 Notice that Paul sees option 2 (doing something for himself) as a legitimate choice.  Caring for his own desires is not wrong.  We can tell that because he agonizes over this decision.

a.    Let’s wrestle with that statement a bit.  Agree / disagree - why?

6.    Pp 210-11 Let’s work through both lists - my resurrection/your resurrection.  I think these lists will help us identify the kinds of things we’re looking for as we lift our eyes to the horizon.