Mt. Zion Lutheran Church Greenfield, Wisconsin

08/30/2026

https://mountziongreenfield.org/sermon/justified-2/
So Jesus tells this parable to the lawyer to get him (and us) to give up on any attempts at self-justification before God. Jesus tells him basically, “You think you’ve been loving your neighbor? Try this story on for size.” Jesus doesn’t lower the bar, He raises the bar; He doesn’t minimize the Commandments, He maximizes them. The message Jesus is communicating is clear: Don’t try to neuter God’s Law. Let it have its full effect on you. Let it tear you so that He can truly heal you. Let it kill you so that He can make you truly alive with His own life. Turn away from justifying yourself, and trust in Him to put things right with you. Repent, believe in Him, cling to His righteousness. Only through faith in Him are you truly justified.

For Jesus Himself is the real Good Samaritan in this parable. He says to you who are mortally wounded on the side of the road, beaten down by sin and Satan and the grave, “The Law cannot help you. It can diagnose your condition, but it offers you no medicine. Like the priest and the Levite, it passes by on the other side. Give up all these exhausting attempts to try to make yourself good enough. Only I, Jesus, your Good Samaritan, can rescue you and give you true goodness. I have come to you as a foreigner from the outside, the Son of God from heaven. Though I am despised and rejected by the Jewish leaders, I have come to show you mercy and compassion.

“As one who shares in your flesh and blood, I am here to take your place. I myself will be robbed and stripped of My clothing; I myself will be beaten mercilessly and left dead on a cross, buried in a grave. But this is the way I will defeat your enemies. This is the way I will take away their power over you. I will take the whole curse into my body, your sickness and sin and hurt and death. And by My divine blood I will break the curse. Through My resurrection, I will give you new and immortal life. You cannot win this fight by your own strength. But I am fighting for you. When death and the devil grab hold of My weak flesh, they will learn all too soon that they have grabbed hold of the almighty God; and I will tear them limb from limb and utterly destroy them. I am here with you. Lean on Me. You are safe; you are forgiven; you are justified through Me. There is nothing now that can separate you from the love of God.”

The Good Samaritan Jesus comes to you and He cleans up the wounds of your sin in the waters of baptism. He pours on the oil of His Holy Spirit to comfort you and the w**e of His blood to cleanse and purify you in Holy Communion. He gives you lodging in the Inn which is His holy church. Here you are continually cared for through the preaching of His words of life. For although your sins are fully forgiven, yet the wounds of sin are not fully healed. We still live with their effects in this world, don’t we. The Church is the hospital where those wounds are tended to by the Great Physician, lest they become infected. Jesus provides the innkeeper pastor with two denarii, so that the Lord’s overflowing compassion might continue to be given to you in His ongoing ministry of the Gospel. Jesus promises to pay whatever it takes to restore you. For in fact He has already paid the full price, fully atoning for your transgressions by His sacrifice on the cross.

08/23/2026

"It says in the Gospel that they brought the deaf-mute to Jesus and “begged Him to lay His hand on him.” They’re going to get exactly what they asked for–and then some. Jesus begins by taking the man aside, privately; this isn’t going to be for show. Since the man cannot hear, Jesus is going to use some actions to convey to him the nature of what he is about to do, a little sign language. First, He puts His fingers into the man’s ears. As the Great Physician, He is not afraid to come into contact with what ails us, the gunk of our fallen humanity. He knows our problems first hand, literally, so that He can truly fix them. And then Jesus spits and touches the man’s tongue. The tongue, too, needed to be fixed. But why spit? This all seems a little unsanitary, earwax and saliva–not to mention that Jesus is uncomfortably close to this man, invading his space, right in his face. But this is how our Lord operates. In order to help us, He has to unsettle us and make us a bit uncomfortable. God gets in our face and confronts us with our natural deafness toward Him, our stubborn inclination to listen to other more entertaining voices. We have to be brought to realize that only His real, physical presence can help and save us. Only the fingers of God in our ears, only the working of the Holy Spirit through the Word can open our ears to hear Him rightly and believe with our heart. Only what comes from Jesus’ mouth can restore our mouths to confess the true faith and to speak His praises."

Mark 7:31-37 Trinity 12 In the name of the Father read more...

08/16/2026

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

Trinity 11 Luke 18:9-14 ✠ In the Name of the read more...

08/13/2026

Information regarding the funeral for our long-time president, Scott McIntosh, is here:

View Scott Reid McIntosh's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

08/01/2026

Mt. Zion and Our Father's Lutheran churches held a joint Vacation Bible School this week. The theme was "The River of Life" focusing especially on OT water stories that point us to Christ and our baptism into Him. The kids enjoyed the great crafts, music, and activities. Thanks to all the volunteers who worked so hard to make this event a success!

07/29/2026

We rejoice in the baptism of Taylor Madson which took place last Sunday in divine service. We thank God for her rebirth in Christ by water and the word and pray that God would keep her in her baptismal faith throughout her life. Welcome to our fellowship, Taylor!

07/26/2026

"There are only two paths that you can take in this world–one is the way of life, and the other is the way of death. The path that leads to destruction is wide and easy and usually feels right to us. It is the path of least resistance. Just as water naturally flows in the most downward direction, wherever the land takes it, so the way of death is the path that fallen humans naturally take. It is the way of the world which follows the crowd and goes with the flow and doesn’t want to rock the boat too much. It is that desire in you to do what is easy rather than to do what is right, to do just enough to get by rather than to do to the best of your God-given abilities, to please people rather than to please God, to love yourself more than Him. The wide and broad way of destruction leads people like lemmings over the cliff.
"The path of life, on the other hand, is narrow and difficult and is often contrary to what feels right. It is usually the path of most resistance. It involves going against the flow, following the Word of God and not the crowd, swimming upstream, like salmon using every ounce of energy to leave the salt water and return inland to the fresh water streams and pools in which they were spawned. Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” The way of life is narrow because it is found exclusively in Christ who said, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” This path is hard because it is the way of the cross, dying to the self so that you might have real life through faith in Him.
"This is the path that baptism sets us on (and that Taylor began today). It may not sound desirable at first, but you go to baptism to lose your life in order to gain eternal life with God. Romans 6 says that when you’re baptized, you’re crucified with Christ; you’re baptized into His death. However, that is actually very good news! Because it means that His sacrifice counts for you. Your sins are paid for by His cross. God’s judgment against you has been taken away in Jesus. And it’s also good news because that same passage says this as well, “If we have been united with Him in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.” In baptism we begin to live a different life, the new life of Christ."

Matthew 7:13-23 Trinity 8 ✠ In the name of the read more...

07/19/2026

"However, into this barren world breaks the very Son of God Himself to save you. For where is Jesus in the Gospel? He is in the wilderness with a multitude of people who have nothing to eat, those who are feeling the effects of the curse very concretely. Christ took on your human flesh and blood and put Himself smack dab into the middle of this fallen world in order to rescue you and raise you up. Man’s sin turned the world from paradise into a bleak and harsh place, and so Jesus entered into that bleakness and harshness as a true man in order that He might undo the curse on creation and restore you to paradise."

Mark 8:1-9 Trinity 7 ✠ In the name of the read more...

06/14/2026

Today's sermon with audio at the link. Here's a snippet:
"Notice that in the end the only ones taking part in the feast are beggars and foreigners. For only they were given to see their need for what the Master had to give. This is what you also must become before God: a hungry beggar, a needy foreigner. You must be brought by God to see that of yourself you are spiritually empty, with nowhere else to turn but to Him. The divine Law must expose your desperate need so that you will crave the Bread of Life. Only then will the great supper be not just one of many things on your to-do list, one sliver of the pie of your life. It will be the whole pie, the one thing that you cannot do without, the very source of your life. For the meal is Christ, and He said, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
"So take to heart what our Lord’s invitation is saying to you: Do not be afraid. Do not be sad. Do not dwell upon your past sins. They are gone. They are forgiven. If you are weary, heartbroken, lonely, wracked with guilt or uncertainty, hear the words of the Lord when he says to you, “Come to the feast!” It has been made ready for you to heal and restore you. The greatest and the least, the popular and the outcasts, the cool and the uncool, the wealthy and the poor–everyone is invited! Leave behind the love of temporary things. Dwell upon the love of Christ who has loved you beyond all telling. The highways and hedges of this world are not your true home. He has brought you here this day to His House and to His Feast. Come, taste of His Supper."
https://mountziongreenfield.org/sermon/no-excuses-for-the-great-feast-2/

06/07/2026

"The rich man in hell knew that his brothers were under the same delusion that he was. That’s why he wants to warn them. He realizes that they think they’re fine with God, when they’re not. They, too, might refer to Abraham as their father and think they’re among the people of God, but they are deceived. They don’t share Abraham’s faith. And so they aren’t true children of Abraham. Let this warning, then, also come to you and me today, so that we don’t end up like the rich man, complacent and falsely secure, putting our faith in the wrong place.
"That’s really the key difference between the rich man and Lazarus–their faith. It wasn’t so much about what they possessed, but what possessed them, what had a hold of their hearts. Even though he may have been a religious person, the rich man’s real confidence was in his own abilities and smarts, his own resources, his own power and standing as a pillar of the community. Even in the fires of hell, the rich man rejected Moses and the prophets. Did you notice that? When the rich man wants to use Lazarus to go back to his brothers from the dead and warn them, Abraham says that Moses and the prophets are more than enough; that Word of God is all that his brothers need. But the rich man doesn’t think that’s good enough. He thinks that Scripture is empty, that it doesn’t have the power to bring them to repentance or to save them. He wants a miracle. Even in hell his trust is in something else than God’s Word. Just because he sees heaven and hell doesn’t mean that he’s become a believer. Death does not change someone from being an unbeliever to a believer. The hard-heartedness of the unbelieving goats perseveres into eternity. In fact his unbelief actually becomes a part of his eternal torment, as his hard heart grows increasingly more frustrated and angry at the ways of God.
"Lazarus, on the other hand, clung to Moses and the prophets. The Word of God was his hope. For you may remember that the name “Lazarus” literally means “God is My Helper” or “My God is Help.” Even though Lazarus longed for mere crumbs from the table, even though the street dogs licked his wounds, even though in this world Lazarus had nothing–not even his health–in truth, and perhaps surprisingly, Lazarus found what he was seeking. He found mercy that endures forever. He received Living Water and Bread from Heaven. He obtained perfect satisfaction and health. It was all there for him in Moses and the prophets. For there in Moses and the prophets was the Messiah, Jesus, his Help and his Savior."

Luke 16:19-31 Trinity 1 ✠ In the Name of the read more...