Freedom and Being at Ease

BMCC Sunday Sermon · 7 Jun 2026 · Speaker: Pastor Hong

“Shouldn’t you be free by now?”

We often believe that if only we had enough — enough possessions, enough achievements — freedom would follow. Solomon was one of history’s wealthiest kings: he built magnificent palaces, planted vineyards, constructed reservoirs, and accumulated silver and gold. Yet in the Book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon speaks with striking honesty: “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure… then I considered all that my hands had done… and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind.” What we grasp slips through our fingers; what we pursue does not set us free.

On 7 June 2026, Pastor Hong preached under the theme “Freedom and Being at Ease,” inviting the congregation to sit with an intimate question: where does freedom truly come from? He drew on a small, familiar scene — a usually gentle family member who grew irritable and impatient at the wet market. “She has everything. Shouldn’t she be free?” And in that moment, he understood: freedom has nothing to do with how much we own. Outward abundance does not equal inward liberation.

On this Sunday, Pastor Hong turned to a learning journey he holds dear — clown theatre training. He spoke of Philip, a renowned French clown master who, now in his nineties, has shaped generations of theatre artists through his unconventional, demanding pedagogy. Though Pastor Hong never had the chance to study with Philip directly, he spent time in March this year — in Hong Kong, after a gathering — watching eighty of Philip’s teaching videos. He was deeply moved; it had been a long time since learning had touched him so profoundly. Philip’s teaching style is not gentle. He is known for being blunt, even cutting. Yet beneath that sharpness, Pastor Hong saw love — not love that comforts, but love that liberates: an insistence on stripping away pretence to find what is real.

The heart of clown training is learning to be “someone who doesn’t know.” To play like a child — to attempt what is unfamiliar, to make mistakes without shame, to be seen without fear of being laughed at. “When nobody laughs, you are beautiful like a child who has broken his toy.” There is a particular beauty in honest failure. An actor who forces tears on stage, manufacturing feeling — the audience sees through it immediately. But a performer who is truly present, fully alive in the moment, even imperfect — that person carries life, and life is contagious.

Pastor Hong shared a moment of sharp self-revelation. During a game in drama class, he won — but discovered, to his bewilderment, that he did not know how to share his joy. “I felt boring, flat, withdrawn.” He went to his teacher and confessed that he could not give his happiness away. In that instant, he saw through his own mask. Beneath the drive to perform and to succeed, he encountered a self that desperately wanted to play, yet had never learned to open up.

This kind of insight — arrived at through frustration, not triumph — is not something to mourn. It is a gift: a meeting with one’s own soul. Pastor Hong drew a connection to the Christian understanding of suffering. Difficulties and discomfort do not exist to break us; they exist to slow us down long enough to reflect, and in that reflection, to find who we really are. “True wisdom is not knowing everything,” he said, “but finding joy in the flowers.” If Solomon could have taken a clown class, Pastor Hong mused, perhaps Philip would have said to him: “Solomon, you tried too hard to be a great king. You were too afraid of failing the performance. This course exists to let you taste that emptiness — because only by releasing your grip on perfection can you truly live, truly laugh, truly love.”

“Even in an uncomfortable environment, your soul can be at ease.”

This is the core insight of the sermon. A smile is not merely a facial expression — it is an opening, an act of energy given freely. When we stop performing perfection, when we lay down the mask that says we must appear a certain way, genuine exchange becomes possible. Within each of us dwells a radiant and beautiful soul. Whatever the external circumstances — however the world rises and falls around us — that soul can exist, can breathe, can give thanks.

The service concluded with open communion. Pastor Hong said: “BMCC’s communion is an open table. No one can bar you from the love of our Lord.” These words are also the sermon’s quiet conclusion: freedom is not something we must fight to earn. It is an invitation already extended — you may come, you may receive, you may be yourself here.

Blessed Ministry Community Church (BMCC) is a home for everyone. Whether or not you have found your answers, whether your life is at a crossroads or walking steadily forward, whether you still carry a mask you do not know how to take off — there is a place here that is waiting for you. Each Sunday we gather in Hong Kong, accompanying one another, seeking together that genuine freedom in the midst of imperfection. If you would like to know more about BMCC, we warmly welcome you to visit hkbmcc.org.