What's the Time?

Props

Clocks or watches - at least one with hands, and one digital (these should all be going at the time of the assembly - but don't synchronise them in advance!

A record of "Turn, Turn, Turn" (written by Pete Seeger - recorded by several artists), if available, could be used with this act of worship.

Click here for a powerpoint which can be used with the worship

Gathering

Leader: We gather together in Jesus' Name

All: Help us to explore, discover and learn together.

Engaging

Who is wearing a watch? Are you wearing a watch with hands, or a digital watch? Which do you think is the most accurate? Check and see whether several of your digital watch wearers are all in agreement as to the time down to the last second - they probably won't be! Why can't you all agree exactly what the time is? Does it matter anyway?

There are moments when it is important to be able to measure time really accurately - for example athletes in the Olympic Games would want to know if they had broken a world record. For other people it might not matter at all what the exact time is: a farmer might want to work out in his fields for as long as he can one day, he wouldn't say that he was going home at exactly 7.00 p.m., rather he would say he was going to finish work when it was too dark to see things properly, whatever time that was.

In Jesus' days Jews like him measured time very differently to the way we do now. They said that day time was divided into twelve "hours" of equal length. Try to imagine what that would be like in England. In the Winter when the sun rises late and sets early, if you divided the daylight time by twelve hours then the "hours" would only be about thirty five minutes long! But in the Summer, when the sun rises early and sets late, if you divided the daylight time by twelve hours, then the "hours" would be about ninety minutes long! Measuring time like that could quickly get very confusing!

Sometimes it is best not to get worried too much about the exact time. If you lived in the Diocese of Vellore in India, you might find that there were many things that stopped you doing things at exactly the right time. What kind of things do you think they may be?

Many people do not own their own transport and it might be that they are delayed in reaching meetings or events by problems with buses, road accidents or poor road conditions.
For most of the year the temperature in the South of India is over 100 degrees F / 38 degrees C, and people find it physically draining to do things quickly, especially in the middle of the day.
A lot of people, especially in the villages, do not actually have clocks and watches - they tell the approximate time from the sun, if they need to tell it at all.
India is a very populous country and there are often long queues for things that you need to do e.g. in banks or buying tickets. You just have to accept that you will "waste time" on things like this.
People are not so worried as they are in England if things take a long time or you have a long wait. They know things will happen eventually, so they are simply patient. For example - the Christians in the Diocese of Vellore organised a special Silver Jubilee procession through the centre of the town.. It was supposed to start at 9.00 a.m. in the morning, but by the time they had waited for everyone to arrive from all over the area it was midday when they started! This made all the other activities planned for the day late starting too, but nobody seemed to mind, and everything happened eventually. It was a wonderful day, and everyone enjoyed it. What might it have been like if that had happened in England?

All of these things mean that if people go out to India from England they might start by being very cross with everything, because things seem to happen slowly and they can't make people speed up! In the end they have to slow down to match the pace of everyone else, and this can make them calmer and more peaceful people too! (It also means that you can spend more time with people too, rather than rushing from meeting to meeting!)

There is a famous passage in the Bible in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verses 1-8 which talks about time (read it here, or perhaps use the well know song version "Turn, Turn, Turn" if you have a copy available). It tells you that there is a right time for everything in the great plan of God, and however much rushing about we do, or however accurate our watches are, things will still happen at the (His) right time. Perhaps it might be better for us to remember that, and not get as anxious and hurried as we can do.

Responding

The prayer time could be used for a few minutes of silent reflection and calm in a busy day - perhaps listening to suitable music, or focussing on a candle. Give thanks to God for quiet moments.

Sending

Leader: Go in peace to discover God's world and your place in it.

All: We go in Jesus' name

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