Ash Wednesday Service & the First Week of Lent
To mark Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, we at Hinde Street gathered for our annual evening service on February 18th. As we received a traditional ashing on the forehead or hand, we reflected on the following words: “Remember you are dust and to dust you will return. Turn from sin and be faithful to Christ.”
The following Sunday was the First Sunday of Lent. At our 11am service, we explored the tension between our loyalty to God and the temptation of idols – not just statues or false gods, but anything we elevate above God in our hearts, our choices, or our trust. In Genesis and Matthew, humans are tempted to seek control, security, and power apart from God. While Adam and Eve grasp at autonomy and lose intimacy with God, Jesus resists similar temptations in the wilderness.
This is a time for a new start and deciding priorities – to pause, breathe and make space for God. Thus, in this first week of Lent, The Methodist Church invited us to reflect on the following question: What are some ‘idols’ – visible or hidden – that we are tempted to trust more than God?
If you missed the first sermon of Lent, you will be able to listen to it on our podcast channel here.
The Second Week of Lent
The theme for the second week of Lent is ‘Let go of the form, embrace the spirit’.
This week’s readings explore faith and transformation beyond the structures we have come to know and trust. In Romans 4, ‘the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith’. In John 3, Nicodemus learns that the Spirit moves unpredictably and often beyond even the frameworks of religious organisation and practice.
These texts remind us that while structures support faith, they are not its substance. In this second week of Lent, therefore, we are invited us to embrace uncertainty, remain open to mystery, and trust the transforming work of the Spirit.
You can listen to John Swarbrick’s sermon from March 1st here.
The Third Week of Lent
On Sunday March 8th we not only entered the third week of Lent but also gave thanks for the life of Rev Jesse Jackson, including his ministry of Justice Equality and Peace and his Rainbow Coalition.
In a hopeful sermon, Lord Paul Boateng spoke on how, like living water, God’s grace is abundant and overflowing. As The Methodist Church urges us this week to ‘Let go of scarcity, embrace abundance’, we may rest easy in the knowledge of eternal waters and eternal life.
To further reflect on this metaphor, we invited the congregation to come pour water by the thimbleful into a bowl in a silent prayer, and to meditate on the rainbow cast by the light of God shining on this source of all life.
You can listen to Paul’s sermon from March 8th here.
