A Tinkling Brass

Darrel Bird, Oregon

 

A few years ago I worked in a boatyard off the Santa Barbra channel. Being an avid sailor and amateur boat builder myself I loved to work on boats and build them from scratch. On a weekend outing down to the boat docks one can take a very pleasant stroll along the bank and view the boats in all their splendor, masts standing tall and proud, halyards gently tapping in the wind.

 

Working there was pleasant, the weather most always balmy and beautiful with a stiff breeze flowing steadily onshore off the pacific. However there was a fly in the ointment so to speak in working there day after day. All the sailboats lined up along the docks have tall aluminum mast with the many halyards (ropes to you land lubbers) running up along side the mast to the very top. These ropes have various stainless steal sheaves (pulleys to the land lubber) attached to them.

 

As the morning breeze would pick up speed, the halyards, sheaves and splices would begin beating, tapping and slapping steadily on those aluminum masts. Most of the time I would not notice it as I busied about my assigned task of repairing first one thing and then another but the steady clanging, tapping and slapping of those ropes against the aluminum mast of 50 sailboats would steadily push its way into my brain and become an constant irritant and cause me to grit my teeth and wish for relief before the day was over. Only upon a firm commitment to try to ignore it could I push it away and continue working else it would drive me mad had I allowed it.

 

I suspect that that is what Paul meant when he said these words.

 

1 Cor 13:1 KJV  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

 

Being around someone devoid of love for awhile can begin to get on ones nerves, wear on your nerves like a constant clanging of metal on metal.

 

A restaurant waitress said that she dreaded waiting on the church crowd who came to her restaurant on Sunday; she said they were the pickiest, gripe bunch to deal with of all her customers. Sad isn’t it? 

 

WE can have plenty of religion but if it is not mixed with love we can become a constant irritation to those around us in whom we come into close proximity. We like to think of ourselves as pleasant to be around, but are we really?

 

It may just be that we have become an irritant instead of a blessing to those around us, a constant slapping, tapping and tinkling until a person leaves our presence to obtain silence and blessed relief from us. It is enough that those around us constantly receive a dose of the sinful world around them without us adding to cacophony. 

 

Folk are vexed night and day already with the conversation of a sinful people just as Lot was vexed night and day. Do we really, as professing Christians need to add to that?

 

We like to believe that we are salt and light to those around us, but are we really? Or has our salt lost its flavor and our light become dim? Do we unconsciously become a sounding brass or a tinkling symbol or do we constantly and consistently extend love to those around us?

 

The Bible says this about love:

 

Corinthians I 13:4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

   Corinthians I 13:5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

   Corinthians I 13:6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

   Corinthians I 13:7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.