WYCO 106.1 FM, York, PA (2024)

06/25/2024

No Barrier Will Stop Me
Luke 5:17 – 26
Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H Koplitz

17 One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. 18 And some men were carrying on a 1bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. 19 But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. 20 Seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” 22 But Jesus, 1aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 “But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” — He said to the paralytic — “I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” 25 Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. 26 1They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

In Luke chapter 5 verses 17 to 26, we have the story of Jesus healing a paralytic. This narrative is chock full of all kinds of symbolism. There was one symbol that caught my attention when I read this time. One thing that you’ll find is that if you read a piece of Scripture and then you come back sometime later and read it again and sometimes later and read it again that you’re going to find that it strikes you in different ways.

The symbol that struck me this time is that a barrier occurred between the paralytic and Jesus. The paralytic’s friends who brought him in on a mat decided they were not about to let any barrier stop them. They climbed onto the roof of the house and took out a piece of the roof so they could lower their friend and his mat in front of Jesus so he could cure him. Now this shows that not only the paralytic but the friends who brought him to Jesus were believers that Jesus could heal him.

We could stop for a moment and talk about the symbolism of healing and what that meant to the paralytic. But like I said, this narrative is full of symbolism, and I just wanted to concentrate on one, and that is the barrier that stops them. What’s important is to understand that the barrier did not stop the men from helping their friend. So, we should spend a moment and determine what the barrier was physically.

So, Jesus is in a house. People were roaming in and out. He’s doing a lot of teaching and he’s doing some healing along the way. Jesus was very popular when he was walking around the Galilee partly because of the things he had already done but also because he was a new teacher and he had new ideas that were rooted in the current beliefs about God. Since Jesus did not stand by all the traditions of the day, we would’ve considered him something of a radical. The Galilee and Judea were under Roman occupation and life was difficult for people. Sicknesses of different sorts were present in the community because the Romans got the best of everything. They got the best food; they got the best water; they got the best accommodation. The common person was lucky if they lived to be 40 years old.

Oppressed people throughout history have always turned to God. The Jews in the Galilee and Judea turned to God and asked how much longer the oppression of the Romans and the oppression of their own leaders was going to last. People were yearning for the Messiah because the tradition said that the Messiah would rid the country of the foreigners. The Messiah was to get rid of the Roman government and allow the Jews to go back to self-government.

In some ways, the religious leadership of the day had placed barriers for people who simply wanted to worship God to come to the synagogue or the temple. Therefore, the common people seeing Jesus as the Messiah and as their Savior from the horrible conditions that they had a live in.

Let’s explore a modern barrier to help our understanding of what was going on in Jesus' day. There was a time when people expected men to come to church wearing a full suit, a tie, and being well groomed. Women would come to church in beautiful dresses, and many of them wore hats. Yes, I am talking about a time before the 1970s. But imagine if you had people that stood at your church doors who would not let you in unless you fit the dress code. There are restaurants, high-priced ones, that have certain dress codes. That would be an equivalent. The restaurant does not allow entry for those who are not dressed properly. In years ago, if you are not wearing the proper outfit, then you could not come into church to worship God. That’s a barrier. There are still some churches where the leadership will give you some interesting looks if you are not conforming to the dress code of the church.

We could go into a long discussion of why your clothing has nothing to do with your ability to worship God. Again, that’s not the issue at hand. The issue at hand is barriers. Jesus never put up a barrier. It was the people that came to see him and the religious leadership that tried to put a barrier up to prevent people from getting in to see him. Now when I say it’s the people that came to see him, it was because there were so many people that wanted to get into this house that probably could only hold 20 some people at one time. Imagine if you were one of those 20 in that house within an arm’s reach distance of Jesus, you certainly would not want to give up your spot. So inadvertently, people who came to see Jesus created a barrier.

The symbolism then of the barrier is that Jesus does not want a barrier between anyone who seeks him and he. The way to get to Jesus should be open to every person on the face of the planet. I serve the church where I was told that I was not allowed to go into an apartment complex to evangelize the people to come to the church because the church people did not want them. Why? Because the church was of a middle-class congregation, and they did not want the lower-class people coming into the building to worship. When confronted with the question of why these people can’t worship God, I always got the answer pastor, they can go worship God just not here. That’s another modern-day barrier. And if one of the lower classes entered that church, there were specific people in the church that would make them feel so uncomfortable they never returned. Every time I saw that happen, I spoke out against it, but unfortunately, it fell on deaf years in that church.

If you are seeing a barrier in your church that is preventing people from coming into worship, it is your obligation as a follower of Jesus Christ to stop it. Whenever we see a barrier anywhere that prevents someone from coming to Jesus, it is our obligation to stop it.

I pray that you never have to run into this barrier, but it’s unfortunate I have to tell you it exists. So, when you see it, speak out against it and do all you can to eliminate it. Jesus came to the world for all people, and no one should shun anyone from entering a church to worship Him.

05/14/2024

So, you want to teach or preach the word of God
James 3:1 – 12
Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

[Warning about teaching] 3:1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. 3 Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. 4 Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. 5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. 7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. 8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. 11 Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

There is a similarity between teaching and preaching the word of God. That similarity is that in either situation, part of what you’re doing is teaching people what the word of God means and how they should react to it. Because you want to do this, there is an extra burden placed upon you, as explained in the third chapter of the book of James. Ask yourself the question: why do you want to teach or preach the word of God? There are so many people that are doing this because they feel it edifies them and, frankly, that’s the wrong reason for doing it.

Now I can say this because in my doctor of ministry studies on leadership in the church, I discovered that three-quarters of the pastors were pure egocentric people or had a very strong egocentric part of their personalities. What this means is that it was more important for them to be the center of attention on Sunday morning than it is to actually teach what the word of God is truly about. Now I am not saying that they were not teaching the word of God properly. I’m talking about the motivation to teach the word of God.

Therefore, a good question for you to start with is what is motivating you to do this. Frankly speaking, when the Lord Jesus called me to preach the original meaning of Scripture, he did not show me this passage. My response was that I did not know the Bible to be able to preach it. I did not want to go out and tell people falsehoods. However, I was told in my calling that I would learn what the scripture was about. I would learn how to discover the original meaning of the Scripture, and I could explain it in a way that people today could understand and accept it. I was not told in the calling or even as I explored the calling that there is an additional responsibility placed upon an individual who is going to go out and either teach or preach or do both for the word of God.

If you’re going to do this, you really take on an enormous responsibility. According to the author of the third chapter of James, if you teach or preach the word of God, you will be held to a higher standard than a normal person. Why? You are instructing people how to live by God’s word. Therefore, if you get it wrong, people could behave in a way that is contrary to the word of God. This is an exceptional responsibility to take on, and it’s something that you have got to take seriously.

Early on, as I explored my calling, I was sitting in a church where I heard the preacher talk about Trinity in a way that did not seem right to me. They referred to the lady as the angel lady and she talked about Trinity in an angelic form. When I took my theology class at seminary, it was very clear that angels had nothing to do it Trinity. In other words, angel lady was 100% wrong in our understanding of the doctrine of Trinity and should not have been out there preaching about it because she was telling people heresy. Now how God and Jesus deal with her is, of course, up to them, but how many people did she infect with falsehoods?

A lot of the fallout about the judgment of teachers came that there were several forms of Christianity in existence in the first through fourth centuries after Jesus' death and resurrection. Of course, each expression of Christianity said that the other expressions were false and that if a person preached those other forms of Christianity, they were certainly going to hell. We take that into account when we read chapters like the third chapter of James. However, now that we have established an understanding of Christianity. We still have to be careful about spreading falsehoods.

Let me give you an example. Rob Bell is out in Michigan preaching that there is no Hell. He says everyone’s going to heaven no matter how bad you are or how good you are. I’m not even sure he believes you must have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in order to get into heaven. If there’s no idea of hell, then where do you send the people who did not come to know Jesus and the sinners who say they believed in Jesus.

In the book of the watchers, which is the first 36 chapters of the book of 1 Enoch, there is a description of what’s called the mountain of the dead. People believed that when someone died, the soul would be placed into one of four caverns inside the mountain of the dead. One cavern was for the purely righteous and pious people who spent their entire lives fulfilling the laws God gave us in the Bible. Then there was a chamber for those people who were100% sinners in that they totally ignored God’s word and did evil and sin. There was another chamber for those who committed the sin and needed to be judged for that sin because what they did could not have been avoided. For example, an accidental death. Then there was a chamber for people that needed to be judged, and it was not determined right up front whether they were good or bad. So even before Jesus' time, there was this belief about the mountain of the dead. Scholars believe that the Book of the Watchers was authored around 250 BCE.

So now you think about going out in preaching or teaching the word of God. How educated are you to do it? If you do not have proper education to go out and preach and teach the word of God, but you feel called, like I did, then you need to go out and educate yourself. This means more than just reading a simple article or simple commentary on the passage that you’re going to teach or preach about. It means learning what Christianity is all about with all its doctrines with all its pluses and all of its minuses. It also means that you must never stop learning about Christianity.

I know so many pastors who are preaching the word of God who haven’t cracked open a book since they left the seminary. In fact, you can find sermons and teaching lessons out on the Internet and download them and use them. I am sure that there are many people who plagiarize sermons. I know one pastor who was using his father's sermons for his entire career. Even though his father was preaching back in the 1940s and 1950s, he used the same sermons. They were outdated and pretty much useless to today’s society, but that’s what he did. Should that person of been preaching the word of God? I will let you decide that.

The more you study and learn about the Bible, history, and doctrine, the better you will get a teaching and preaching the word of God. That does not mean that you won’t stumble here and there, maybe say the wrong thing, but the more you study, the less often that will ever happen. We must ensure that we get the right information in people’s hands.

One of my pet peeves about the church is the lack of proper education for the people. Jesus' great commission is to go out and make disciples and teach them about the faith. The mission of the United Methodist Church, in which I am ordained, says that their mission is to go out and make disciples for Jesus Christ to transform the world. That sounds very nice, however, they forgot about the fact that we have to educate people about what the faith is all about. That is where the church fails.

In my 25 years of pastoral ministry what I have discovered is that the teachers of the church’s Sunday school is anyone who will pick up the book that goes with the lessons, read the lessons, and try to run some kind of discussion about the lessons. I sat in on a Sunday school class at one of my churches and I watched this happen. When the discussion time came, I raised my hand and asked about a question that was not in the book but was pertinent to the subject being discussed. The leader of that Sunday school group stopped me and said we only discuss the questions that are in the book. By doing that, you limit yourself to only discussing what some author has put in a book. You assume the author got it right? And that is not good for education.
We need to allow people to expand their thinking and to explore questions that they might have about Scripture that are not in the books. That is one of the scariest things to most preachers and teachers of the word of God. Even when I was in seminary, I would ask questions that went past the bounds of where the PhD instructors were.. In the middle of my experience seminary, I had to sit in an evaluation of how I was doing. The leader of that inquiry said that teachers that I had in the seminary all said the same thing about me. Well, what was that I inquired? The answer was you asked too many questions and you try to expand the topics. I asked what was wrong with that? I never got an appropriate answer about it.

Exploring the Scripture beyond what a single book tells you is important that you get a much better and clearer picture of what God’s word is all about. Therefore, if you’re going to preach or teach about a passage or a narrative in the Scripture, you need to look into several sources and merge it together and present it coherently. I enjoyed presenting multiple points of view because there are many things that the church believes in and has doctrine about that Jesus never spoke about.

In one’s Sunday school class on theology, an older gentleman stood up screaming at me. He demanded that I needed to tell him what to believe about the Trinity and then stormed out of the room. I refused to tell them what to believe about the Trinity and said they need to pick which doctrine they think, is correct or blend any of them together. This older gentleman just could not handle that and that got him unbelievably angry.

I believe that’s what we’re supposed to do when we teach or preach on the word of God. Here’s a secret I need to share with you in conclusion of this paper and that is there is no one right answer. There are multiple answers to every question except for questions of facts. Opening a discussion about the Scripture and showing multiple interpretations will enrich people and hopefully get them to want to learn more about the meaning of God’s word.

If you are going to preach or teach about the word of God, then you need to be ready to expand not only your own understanding, but also to help people to do the same. If you’re going to go out and preach and teach the word of God, you must learn as much as you can. Understand that there are multiple interpretations for the different passages of Scripture and the different narratives. Seek them out and do your best to learn all you can about them. Then when you make your presentation, you can share those different points of view and help people to determine what they feel is the best answer for them.

04/16/2024

How to survive Satan’s Attacks
Luke 4:1-13
Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Luke 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.’” 5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” 8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘aYOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”
9 And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; 10 for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,’ 11 and, ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’” 12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’” 13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

I had a great uncle that when he turned 80 years old, he never left his apartment until he died. He lived in that apartment with his wife for five additional years. He lived in the Bronx, which is in New York City, and was not the safest place to be living in the 1980s for a person of Jewish descent. He felt that evil was out there in the world, and it would eventually manifest itself in his death. Today I wonder if he had understood the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in the works of Jesus Christ that might’ve made a difference to him.

I want you to be careful about what I just said because evil is out there in the world, and we must be on our guard for it. Even though you are believers in Jesus Christ, our enemy Satan is still out there in the world, infecting people. One thing we must be very careful about is not to be infected. One could say that Satan's power has infected us like a pandemic since Adam and Eve were placed in the garden of Eden and will continue to infect us until the end of time.

This narrative about Jesus’ temptation in the desert refers to three theological points: (1) the nature of evil; (2) the power of temptation; (3) the nature of Christ. The nature of evil is doing anything which is contrary to the Word and Will of the LORD. It’s like having two angels on your shoulders. The good angel is on the right shoulder and the evil angel is on the left shoulder. Every time the good angel directs you to do something good, the evil angel tells you how absurd it is to do and suggests something else which may sound good but is pure evil. Evil clothes itself in good and we must recognize this and beware not to fall into the trap of evil. Committing sin can make us feel good. Getting away with something that we shouldn’t get away with can make us feel like we have power. The power is false and eventually the act of evil will come back to haunt. Through faith in Christ that sin is removed from our soul by our prayers.

The power of temptation is strong, especially for humans. Jesus was in a weakened state when Satan approached Him. The temptation to get food after forty days must have been strong. Yet Jesus resisted with all his might. Satan did not win. For us today, temptation comes in many forms. Peer pressure exists at all ages and can become a powerful force pushing us to do evil. We must learn from Jesus that those who place their faith and trust in Him will find the inner strength from the Holy Spirit to fight temptation.

What we learn about Christ from the narrative is that even in a human form, Jesus never forgot who He was. Jesus could not fight and defeat the forces of Satan if he had given into him. Jesus always remained loyal to the mission that God sent Him on. If we become 100% dedicated to the mission of Christ, we will develop a “shield” against the forces of evil in the world.

Tests, tests and more tests are a theme that flows through the Scriptures. Why these tests? Possibly, God allows these tests to help strengthen our hearts. We can see tests in the earliest stories in the book of Genesis. The LORD tested Noah to see if he would follow. Abraham received plenty of tests from God. Each test was an opportunity for spiritual growth. God allows tests for us to help us grow in our faith and devotion to God.

Jesus had the Holy Spirit with Him while He was in the Wilderness. You and I have the Holy Spirit with us. Every time Satan tosses a test at us, we must turn to God through the Holy Spirit to lead us away from the temptation and evil. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must learn to keep Jesus in our heart throughout all circumstances.

We cannot insulate ourselves from the troubles of the world, but we can keep our divine shield by following Jesus and reading the Word of God daily.

Satan will not attack you until you are at a low point in your life. Regardless of whether the low point is caused by physical health or broken relationships, Satan will wait for the best time to attack you. From the narrative, we understand Satan waited until Jesus was physically drained from the forty-day fast. It is when you are not expecting Satan to appear that He does.

Satan tried three different ways to sway Jesus to abandon God. We must take care that Satan will come to us when we are at a low point and try to convince us that God has abandoned us. Why did God let Jesus fast in the desert for forty days? Why did God allow you to feel you were traveling alone when Satan attacks? This is a perception on our part. God will never abandon the truly faithful. If you cannot feel God’s love and grace with you, then you must do whatever it takes to feel His love, in other words you are preventing God’s love and grace from shining through you.

The second way Satan tries to gain our love is by flat out lying to us. Satan did not own the kingdoms of the Earth. Since he did not own it, how could he possibly give it away? That’s the lie. Satan will offer all kinds of gifts to gain our favor. We must be able to see through the lies and not move away from God because of something Satan cannot give us.

The last temptation was for Jesus to test God. Having faith in God is having faith in the promises of God. We are told through the Scriptures that God will always be there for us. Satan wants to build doubt in your mind so that he can take you away from God. Trusting in God does not mean that you test God. To test God is to say you have doubts or that you do not believe in God. For those who put God to the test need to know that it is Satan that is driving this doubt.

One must continue to have faith and trust in God, no matter what life throws. A faithful discipleship to Jesus Christ can overcome everything.

Too many Christians believe that just being baptized is enough to fight off evil. There is much more needed to combat Satan. Just like Jesus, we must be prepared to face the forces of evil that prevail in our world. How do we do this? Our example is Jesus in the wilderness. We call upon and rely upon the Holy Spirit to guide us and to bring us out of temptation when it happens.

How to survive Satan’s Attacks

04/12/2024

We hope that you will listening to us always!!

04/09/2024

Spiritual Awareness of Jacob's Ladder (Genesis 28:10-22)

Genesis 28:11 He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set.
In this verse, the Torah is showing that the physical light of the sun is being replaced by spiritual enlightenment, divine illumination. It is not until sunset that Jacob has his dream about the ladder.

Jacob goes out on his own in the same way his grandfather Abraham did. The differences between them was that Abraham had a family and wealth while Jacob had nothing. Jacob went out to establish a Jewish home and to achieve this, he had only his personality. The Jacob story continues in Genesis 29 by Jacob, establishing the first Jewish household. Jacob also was the first to give us the expression of the idea that God is to be sought within the home.

Because Jacob could put his material desires off to the side, he received a message directly from God. For many people that is very difficult to do today. Today’s world is so materialistic that it is difficult to say to the Lord that a person could discard all materialism and only be spiritual. When I was in Nogales Mexico, I was at a family's home where they had there been a knock at the door and a girl from next door asked the lady of the house if she could give her a tomato because her mother needed it for dinner. The lady gave her the tomato without asking questions. I raised the question about what the family was going to eat for dinner that night. The lady of the house answered with the stunning words, “God will provide.” Therefore, we can see how materialism will trump spiritualism.

I would have a hard time quitting material possession, even if I knew it got me closer to God. It is the society that we have created in North America and in Western Europe that material is important. Throughout history in the modern age (1500 to 2000 CE), the belief in God providing has been altered, with individuals expected to stand for themselves and take complete care of themselves. This is when religion started its downturn. We can look at large churches today and see the materialism that is a part of the church. However, does that translate into spirituality?

An example I have is when in 2008 the stock market had a major decrease. Many people were thrown out of work. A church that was west of Harrisburg, PA had to lay off half its staff because they lost 40% of their attendance because the people lost their jobs and did not have money for the offering and felt compelled to give money if they attended.

Unfortunately, it takes money to run a church or synagogue today. It is a balancing act that Christianity and Judaism, and probably the rest of religions, have not understood how to master yet. Staff members like to be paid, as do the electric company and the gas company. I do not think there is an easy solution to this problem. I do not think any of us could become as pure as Jacob and throw every possession way to be purely spiritual. I can think of one person who recently did that and that was Mother Teresa.

How do you balance your materialism needs and your spirituality?

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