Concrete Love

Old Testament: Judges 4 & 5

Poetry: Psalm 53

New Testament: 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

For the rest of this week, we are going to be looking each day at small sections of one chapter in the Bible- 1 Corinthians 13. When I was a kid I was taught that 1 Corinthians 15 is the Resurrection chapter, Hebrews 11 is the Hope chapter, and 1 Corinthians 13 is the Love chapter.  If you’ve ever been to a wedding ceremony there is a good chance that you’ve heard all or at least a portion of this read as part of the ceremony.  Today we will look at verses 1-3:

            If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

            This is such a timely reading for me to consider.  For the past 3 years, I’ve been working toward receiving my Doctorate of Ministry from Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville.  It’s been a lot of hard work.  For my project I read hundreds of articles and books, conducted interviews, presented ideas to colleagues, tested ideas on various groups, and wrote, edited, re-wrote, and re-edited until I had a project to present to my committee.  Then after my committee read it, we met and I had to defend my project thesis orally.  Finally, on April 9 I passed.  On May 10 I’ll graduate and receive my official title D.Min, Doctor of Ministry in Integrative Mental Health Chaplaincy.  The afternoon I passed my wife Karen said “Hello, Dr. Fletcher.”  I said, “That’s the only time you’re ever going to call me that, right?”  She said, “Absolutely, I hope you enjoyed it.” 

            So, I’ve been feeling relieved, accomplished, grateful, and good about having achieved this milestone in my academic and professional career. 

            But God had a lot more to teach me.  And Brother Paul put his finger on it.  In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 Paul is saying a lifetime of accomplishments, being a gifted speaker, full of knowledge, or being spiritually gifted with miraculous powers, in the absence of concrete acts of love, is just a bunch of noise.  You can get all the degrees and accolades and knowledge, but if you don’t put love into practice, it’s a bunch of noise and worthless.

            It reminds me of a story I once heard: There was a child psychologist who was famous and had written many best-selling books on parenting and how to raise children.  Recently, he had spent many hours constructing a new driveway at his home. Just after he smoothed the surface of the freshly poured concrete, his neighbors’ small children chased a ball across the driveway, leaving deep footprints. The man yelled after them with a torrent of angry words. His shocked neighbor heard these words and said to him, “You’re a psychologist who’s supposed to love children.” The fuming man shouted, “I love children in the abstract, not in the concrete!”

            Paul is saying in I Corinthians 13:1-3 that love in the abstract is worthless.

            A few days later, God showed me what love in the concrete looks like. I shared the following story on my Facebook page recently.  It resonated with a lot of people because it’s been shared hundreds of times and I’ve heard more responses to it than anything else I’ve ever posted on social media.  It illustrates to me what Love in the Concrete looks like:

I met Jesus yesterday.  Face to face.

He’s a cashier at a grocery store in Front Royal, Virginia.

I was on my way home from work after a busy Monday visiting sick patients at the hospital, supporting families as their loved ones face the end of life, helping people struggling with addiction and staff cope with the challenges of being full-time caregivers. I’m a chaplain and a pastor, that’s what I do all day. It’s what I’ve trained to do, studied, practiced. 

But then, yesterday, out of the blue, with no warning I met Jesus working the register at a grocery store.

First, I saw him patiently help the customer ahead of me.  The one who only had 3 items in her cart, was very confused trying to figure out how much she could spend because she needed to have enough left over.  He was gentle and patient with her.  He couldn’t be more than his late teens, maybe early 20s, but he was attentive and caring.  No eye rolls or looks of frustration, just caring for this confused and frustrated woman. (I was the one who was frustrated at how long it was taking).

Then it was finally my turn to check out.  He was a thin young man, wearing a cross made of horseshoe nails and wire.  He smiled and asked gently, “May I pray for you?”

That was unexpected and caught me completely off guard.  I said, “Yes, please.”   I was so moved that this young man would take the time to notice me and ask if he could pray for me.  This was more than a transactional relationship for him.  He was there to do more than simply earn his paycheck and go home.  He saw me as more than an object, a thing to help pay his bills, he saw me as a person, a human being made in the image of God, who has a life outside of this 5-minute transaction and has needs that can be helped by God’s intervention.  I was deeply moved. 

But he wasn’t finished.

“What would you like me to pray for?”  What should I say?  How specific should I be?  Should I say, “I’m currently under treatment for 2 types of advanced cancer and trying my best to keep going?”  Should I tell him about my concerns about family members that I love, my desire to help my Church grow, and all the needs of the people I visit and staff I serve in the hospital? 

There wasn’t time to go into all of that, so I simply said “My health.”

He stopped and said, “So you are having health problems.  I’ll pray for that.”

By then the tears were starting to well up in me and I hurriedly helped him bag my groceries so I could get out of there before I started ugly crying in the grocery store check-out line.

But he wasn’t done yet.

“What’s your name?”   That about finished me off.  He wasn’t just making conversation or using spiritual cliches like “I’ll pray for you” as well-intentioned people often do, but sometimes forget to actually do.  I knew that he really meant it.  He was and is praying for me, Jeff, who has health needs.  And based on what I saw, he’s already pretty close to God.  So I have a feeling God will listen attentively to his prayers.

As I sat in my car afterward waiting for the tears to subside, I had the overwhelming sense that I had just spent time with Jesus.

I met Jesus yesterday.

He works as a cashier at a grocery store in Front Royal, Virginia.

Since I shared this on Facebook I’ve had dozens of people who live locally write to me or tell me in the hospital that this same young man has left others equally in tears when he prayed for them and they, too, equally felt touched by Jesus.

This young man probably doesn’t have a doctorate in spiritual care, but you don’t need one of those to show people concrete love in the name of Jesus.  Go and be Jesus wherever you are today.

Pastor Jeff Fletcher

Reflection Questions

1. Name a time when you were surprised by God’s love revealed to you in unexpected places.
2. How would you describe the difference between abstract love and concrete love?
3. The young man showed Jesus’ love while checking people out at the grocery store. Where can you show the love of Jesus today?