Sermon

Pastor Hong reflects on a brother in the community who lives with blindness, and who read Job through blindness, conversion therapy, and a lifetime of losses. Out of the whirlwind, God answers not with explanations but with presence.

“No one can know themselves alone.” Dr. Dino Wong drew from Acts 2 and 4, Karl Barth’s relational theology, and the clinical concept of re-parenting — weaving a vision of identity not as something we possess, but something that emerges in the gaze we share.

A brother’s livestream testimony at BMCC’s 2020 World AIDS Day Sunday service. At 45, twenty-five years after his HIV diagnosis at twenty, he reflects on finding belonging at BMCC — the only church in Hong Kong where he felt safe across a dual identity (LGBTQ+ and HIV-positive). A 1997 question from a brother — ‘If you died tomorrow, would you have any regret?’ — led him to fly for the first time, to Tongkwang Church and the Taiwan Lourdes Association, and to a calling.

BMCC’s 27th anniversary thanksgiving service. Lead pastor on Psalm 43:4: BMCC arose from a group of ordinary people who refused to accept that their lives must end as society dictated. Fifty years after MCC began America’s LGBTQ+-affirming movement, the work continues. A call to lay down what we cling to, walk to the altar, light our own candle.

Lead pastor on Acts 5: the early church’s perseverance under persecution depended on character — being of one heart and mind. The story of Ananias and Sapphira shows the cost of spiritual hypocrisy. Concealing injustice in the church is itself a deception of God. Eternal life is not static but the continuous transformation of our lives in cooperation with God.

Rev. Ngeo Boon Lin on Mark 2:18-22 — the three parables of the bridegroom, the new patch on old cloth, and new wine in new wineskins — all calling for change. Christians may give their utmost effort to goals, but entrust outcomes to God. Live in the present: do what should be done now, free of the pressure of outcomes. We do not seek to be the last straw; we seek only to be one of them.

Matthew 5:46-48 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax

Read together, the Good Samaritan parable and the Martha-and-Mary story (Luke 10:25-42) subvert the class and gender expectations of their time — a despised Samaritan becomes neighbour, a woman becomes disciple. Addressed to Theophilus, a wealthy Roman official, the message is clear: in the Kingdom of God, the hierarchies Rome prizes are dismantled.

Pentecost sermon on John 14:8-17, 25-27. John’s Gospel presents the Spirit not as a charismatic Spirit of signs and wonders but as another Counsellor — guiding the disciples into truth, calling back to mind what Jesus said. Serving with passion alone, without reason, brings more damage than good. May we know both the passionate and the rational Spirit.