Field Notes: Stories from St. Martin's

St Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Weekly

Sermons, teaching, and interviews from St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Keller, Texas. We seek to proclaim the Good New of Jesus Christ, so that the people of northeast Tarrant County and beyond might know they are loved by God.

  1. 19h ago

    God Keeps Promises to the Dead

    A land company promised poor settlers nearly two million acres of North Texas. For some of them the promise fell apart and left only graves on the prairie. That is where this sermon begins, at a roadside marker in Grapevine, and it turns out to be where Paul begins too. In Romans 4 he points us to a promise made to a man whose body was as good as dead and a womb that was closed, and he tells us why that promise held when so many others break. It never rested on anyone's strength. It rested on grace. This is not a lesson about having enough faith. It is the announcement that the God who makes the promise is the God who gives life to the dead, in a closed womb, in a house full of mourners, and in a sealed tomb outside Jerusalem. Part of Roman Roads, a summer series walking straight through Paul's letter to the Romans, one passage at a time, each week paired with a real Texas historical marker standing on the roads around us. Readings: Romans 4:13-25 and Matthew 9:18-26Marker: The Peters Colony in Tarrant County and the Hedgcoxe War (Grapevine and The Colony)

    14 min

  2. Jun 1

    God is the Center

    You leave vacation days on the table. You overschedule the summer. You live like the whole thing falls apart if you stop. This Trinity Sunday sermon is the Gospel’s answer to that exhaustion: you are not the main character of the story. God is.Drawing on Genesis 1, Psalm 8, 2 Corinthians 13, and the Great Commission in Matthew 28, we walk through what the Trinity actually means for a tired life. The Father creates you and calls you good before you do anything. The Son redeems you, and nothing you do or fail to do adds to or subtracts from the cross. The Spirit sends you, not because God needs you, but because God invites you. The outcome was never yours to secure.You are a creature made in love. A sinner held by grace. A servant accompanied by presence. The story does not depend on you. You can rest.St. Martin’s Episcopal Church | Keller, TexasReadings: Genesis 1:1-2:4a, Psalm 8, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, Matthew 28:16-20

    12 min

  3. May 26

    The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

    In this Pentecost Sunday message, the Rev. Mark Odieny opens with a disarmingly honest confession: as a youth leader in Kenya, he once faked speaking in tongues to meet the expectations of his peers. That moment of pretending becomes the launching pad for a frank exploration of how deeply human the desire to perform and impress truly is.Drawing on 1 Corinthians, Mark connects the divisions in the ancient church at Corinth to familiar dynamics in modern Texas, where extreme wealth and poverty often sit side by side, and where certain churches are built around the celebrity of a single pastor's gifts. He challenges the congregation to see how spiritual gifts, when turned into status markers, can become the very things that divide the Body of Christ.The heart of the message is a vivid personal story: a wire brush injury on a factory floor that took Mark off work for a week, despite affecting only a small patch of his thigh. The whole body suffers when any part is wounded. The same is true of the church.Key takeaways:- Every member of the Body of Christ carries a necessary gift, from preaching to ushering to caring for restless five-year-olds in the pew- A bicycle chain is strongest at its weakest link- Diversity is not a problem to manage; it is the source of the church's beauty and strengthThe sermon closes with a simple, joyful Pentecost invitation: "Let us be different."

    18 min

  4. May 10

    The Reason Nobody Wants to Hear About Your Faith (And How to Fix It)

    What does your mom have to do with evangelism? More than you think. This sermon starts with a simple question: if you wanted to tell someone about a woman who shaped your life, what would you say? You wouldn't hand them a spreadsheet. You wouldn't list her measurable outputs. You'd testify -- about how she loved you, showed up for you, changed you. So why do we think sharing our faith looks like winning a debate? Drawing on 1 Peter 3, this message reframes "always be ready to give an account" away from intellectual self-defense and toward something far more honest: testimony. Something happened. It changed me. Let me tell you about it. The hope Peter is talking about isn't a vague feeling that things will work out. It's the specific, resurrection-grounded claim that we are free to live differently right now -- free to do good even when it costs something, free to love even when it's easier not to. That's a hope worth knowing well enough to say out loud.

    11 min

  5. May 4

    God's Mercy is Bigger Than You Think!

    On the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Fr. Alan Bentrup preaches from Acts 7, John 14, and 1 Peter 2 at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Keller, Texas. Two of the most misused texts in the New Testament show up in this week's readings. John 14 has been turned into a border checkpoint. 1 Peter 2 has been stamped onto a flag. Both readings have been used to draw the circle small and keep people out. But then Luke slips a single sentence into the story of Stephen's martyrdom: the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. The man who wrote half the New Testament was holding the coats. This sermon asks what it means to worship a God whose mercy is bigger than our categories, bigger than our politics, bigger than our preferences, and bigger than the lines we have drawn around who deserves it. St. Martin's Episcopal Church | Keller, Texas Easter 5, Year A | Acts 7:55-60, Psalm 31, 1 Peter 2:2-10, John 14:1-14

    11 min

  6. Apr 27

    Jesus is the Door

    The Reverend Ayo Omoniyi delivers his sermon for Good Shepherd Sunday, "Jesus is the Door."

    19 min

  7. Apr 12

    Jesus Doesn't Wait for Your Doubt to Resolve | A Second Sunday of Easter Sermon

    What does it mean that the risen Jesus keeps saying the same thing? To frightened disciples behind a locked door. To Thomas in his doubt. Over and over: "Peace be with you."In this Easter Sunday sermon at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Keller, Texas, Fr. Alan explores John 20:19-31 and what the resurrection has to do with a plumber named Mike Jesus, a week of doubt, and the moment every Sunday when a room full of people turns toward each other and says the peace.Jesus does not wait for the fear to lift. He does not wait for the doubt to resolve. He walks in and says it anyway.That is not a small thing. That is the resurrection moving through a room.St. Martin's Episcopal Church | Keller, TexasSecond Sunday of Easter | Year AJohn 20:19-31

    11 min

  8. Apr 5

    The Sound of Hell Undone | The Great Vigil at St Martin's

    All week we have been listening. A crowd. Water poured out. A hammer. And then silence.T onight the ground shook. In this Great Vigil of Easter service from St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Keller, Texas, Fr. Alan offers a brief reflection on what the resurrection actually sounds like: not a quiet next chapter, but an earthquake. The sound of a door torn off its hinges from the inside. The sound of death discovering it has been outsmarted. Hell made its move on Friday. It looked like a victory. It was not a victory. And no one has ever said that better than John Chrysostom. Written in the fourth century and never improved upon, his Paschal Homily is one of the great proclamations of the Christian faith. Rather than compete with it, Fr. Alan steps aside and lets Chrysostom preach. Listen. The Sounds of Holy Week St. Martin's Episcopal Church | Keller, Texas Scripture: Matthew 28:1–10

    5 min
See All (104)

About

Sermons, teaching, and interviews from St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Keller, Texas. We seek to proclaim the Good New of Jesus Christ, so that the people of northeast Tarrant County and beyond might know they are loved by God.

Information

  • Creator
    St Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    104
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © St Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
  • Show Website
    Field Notes: Stories from St. Martin's