Worship Services

What do you treasure?
Sermon by The Reverend Junchol Lee

It may be a unique and vivid characteristic of humans that we value things and matters that are not directly connected to our survival in this very competitive human world. Sometime we value things and matters enough to be willing to sacrifice our very lives for them!

Yet, if we were asked to identify “our treasures,” we might find the task very challenging. In a way, this is exactly what Socrates was asking 2500 years ago: know yourself! Knowing what we treasure, according to Jesus, is the key to understanding where our heart is, meaning it may lead us to really know who I truly am.

“It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” -- Genesis 2:18

This is what the Lord God said before creating a woman out of a rib taken from the man in the 2nd chapter of Genesis. Literally, it might sound like the creation story of the first woman, whose name is Eve. Yet, there are two factors from the Bible itself that stop us from jumping to any quick and easy conclusion:

1. God had already created humans in male and female forms in the previous chapter;
2. The very description of the woman being created from the man’s rib is obviously inviting us to seek deeper meaning.

There are a number of very challenging concepts in Swedenborg’s theological writings. Proprium is definitely one of them. Proprium is translated as “men’s own” in the older translations, and as “selfhood,” “autonomy,” and “sense of selfhood” in the New Century edition. The word proprium is a Latin word meaning “what belongs to man.” What is challenging about understanding proprium is that the very creation of Eve is about God granting proprium to humans, and that proprium is absolutely essential for humans to feel alive and fulfilled; yet it is also the ultimate obstacle against our true and complete union with God.

The core of many of human problems is that our perception is based on the reality that is outside in, while the divine inflow is inside out. We are closely attached to the things and matters belonging to the physical world to the point that we cannot perceive ourselves without them. Proprium, a sense of “self” was desired and needed by the very first humans or the people of the most ancient church precisely because of this. In fact, God blessed proprium and instilled it as the means through which we practice freedom of choice. That is why the “sense of self” that seems to “belong to us” can be the means either to contain within us what is of God or be filled with what is of the world. In this respect, Swedenborg insists that even angels in heaven have proprium.

If I were to summarize all these in a very simple way, I would like to point out two things:

1. No matter how big of a mess we make, God always provides a way for us to recover and restore our lives through the choices we make.
2. The only thing that is truly required of us is to remember the simple truth, God is the Creator, and we are created by God in the image and likeness of God.

Reverend Junchol Lee
Lead Minister and Pastor
The San Francisco Swedenborgian Church

Our Sunday worship service starts at 11 AM, a traditional Christian Service that usually lasts about one hour. Join us for our coffee and fellowship hour in the Parish House following service. Directions to church.

Proverbs 13:1-9
A wise son heeds his father’s instruction, but a mocker does not respond to rebukes. From the fruit of their lips people enjoy good things, but the unfaithful have an appetite for violence. Those who guard their lips preserve their lives, but those who speak rashly will come to ruin. A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. The righteous hate what is false, but the wicked make themselves a stench and bring shame on themselves. Righteousness guards the person of integrity, but wickedness overthrows the sinner. One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. A person’s riches may ransom their life, but the poor cannot respond to threatening rebukes. The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is snuffed out.

Matthew 6:19-21
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Divine Providence §217:5-7
[5] The nature of spiritual distinction and wealth may then be plain--they attach to one's function and not to one's person. The distinguished person in the spiritual world indeed enjoys magnificence and glory like those of kings on earth, yet does not regard the distinction itself as anything but rather the uses in the administration and discharge of which he is engaged. Each also receives the honors of his high post but ascribes them not to himself but to the uses, and as all uses are from the Lord, he ascribes the honors to the Lord as their source. Such are the spiritual distinction and wealth which are eternal. [6] It is quite otherwise with those to whom eminence and wealth were curses in the world. Having attributed these to themselves and not to uses, and not wanting the uses to control them but wanting to control the uses, which they regarded as uses only as they served their own standing and honor, they are in hell and are base slaves, despised and wretched. Their distinction and wealth are gone, therefore are called temporal and fleeting. The Lord teaches about both sorts in the words: Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break through and steal; but lay up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupts and where thieves do not break through and steal; for where your treasure is . . . your heart also is (Mt 6:19-21).

The purpose of these services is to help us grow in our relationship with the Divine— to help us enter into a place of inner stillness and sacredness where the deeper meaning of our lives is revealed. These spiritual practices are especially important for those of us who have the most to do, for it is in the doing that we often lose touch with our deepest self. Reconnecting with our greater spiritual purpose enables us to more fully and freely live a life of greater happiness and peace.

On-Line Worshipping Community
The Rev. Wilma Wake is the minister of our denomination's first on-line spiritual community. If you live far from a local Swedenborgian church, or find yourself otherwise homebound, you may enjoy visiting www.SwedenborgianCommunity.org.

Download Recent Sermons

For a selection of recent sermons, click here.