Field Notes: Stories from St. Martin's

What if the Beatitudes aren’t a Hall of Fame for spiritual all stars, or a list of drills to make us try harder?

On All Saints’ Sunday, the Rev. Alan [Last Name] turns to “Casey at the Bat” and the Sermon on the Mount to hear Jesus’ blessings the way he first spoke them: as promises to a crowd of the sick, the grieving, and the overlooked. Thayer’s poem ends with joy “somewhere” but not in Mudville. Jesus sits down in Mudville and says that somewhere is coming here.

With two baptisms this morning, we watched that promise made: God speaks the blessing first, before the swing and before the stats.

The Rev. Mark Odieny examines how legalism and rigid rules are often weaponized to divide communities, contrasting this human impulse with the radical simplicity of Jesus’s message in Matthew 22. Faced with a trap set by the Pharisees' sharpest legal experts, who ask him to single out the greatest commandment among the 600-plus laws of Moses, Jesus avoids taking the divisive bait. Instead, he points back to the foundational Jewish prayer, the Shema, calling his followers to love God with all their heart, soul, and mind, and immediately pairing it with the command to love one's neighbor as oneself.

By distilling the entire law into these two intertwined principles, Jesus reframes devotion not as a matter of doctrinal perfection or public status, but as practical, outward-facing love. Drawing on the Old Testament tradition of leaving the edges of fields unharvested for strangers and those in need, the sermon concludes with an urgent call to action. Ultimately, true faith is measured not by how well we navigate complex theological debates, but by how unconditionally we extend love and compassion to everyone around us, regardless of their background or beliefs.

What kind of landowner keeps sending servants to tenants who beat and kill them? What kind of father sends his own son?

In this sermon on the parable of the wicked tenants, we look at Jesus' constant confrontations with the Pharisees and discover they aren't about picking a fight. They're about a love that refuses to quit. Jesus never gave up on the Pharisees. He never gives up on the broken.

And he will never give up on you.If you've closed the door on God, if you're carrying something you've never told anyone, if you've decided you're too far gone, this message is for you. He just keeps on coming.

Preached at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Keller, Texas, on the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, October 4, 2026.

Scripture: Matthew 21:33-46

Some people spent this week being told they do not belong. Here is the good news we could not keep to ourselves: God's love does not need a permit.

In this sermon on Matthew 21:23-32, we step into the temple the morning after Jesus turned over the tables and threw the gate wide open. The people in charge show up demanding to know by what authority he welcomes the ones they would keep out. Jesus answers with a story about one family, two sons, and a Father whose love is not rationed to some and denied to others.

This is not a message about enemies. It is about a God who tears down walls, runs toward the very people the world locks out, and looks each of us in the eye to say the truest thing we will ever hear: you belong.

We all carry an unwritten mental ledger, constantly tracking who hurt us, who owes us, or who forgot to say thank you. But what happens when we bring that scorekeeping mindset into our faith?

In this sermon by the Rev. Alan D. Bentrup, we explore Peter’s question to Jesus about forgiveness and dive into the parable of the unforgiving servant. Rather than asking us to work harder at forgiving, Jesus reveals a radical truth about the Kingdom of God: the ledger has been completely torn up. Discover how letting go of cosmic scorekeeping frees us to live in the endless grace we’ve already received.

Peter says the truest thing he will ever say, and within the hour Jesus calls him Satan. We hear "Get behind me" as a door slamming. What if it is an arm across your chest instead?

This week Peter wants to order things his own way, and so do we. We ration our love like the tank is almost empty.

The people closest to us first, the stranger maybe, the one who wronged us never. Then Paul reaches into that fear and takes it apart. No inner circle first, no enemies never. He just keeps widening the circle until no one is left outside it.

Because in Christ, love does not run out. Jesus does not save his love for the deserving. He just loves. Period.

Readings: Romans 12:9-21 and Matthew 16:21-28. Proper 17, Year A.

A sermon by the Rev. Alan D. Bentrup, Senior Priest at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, Keller, Texas. If you are near Keller, we would love to worship with you in person. New here? Come as you are. There is a place for you behind him.

When Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" He was not looking for a textbook answer. He was asking what our lives reveal about Him to the world.

In this sermon, the Rev. Mark Odieny reflects on how our actions, choices, and treatment of others proclaim who Jesus is far more loudly than our words ever could. Drawing from personal stories of his father in Africa, biblical reflections from Isaiah and Romans, and modern cultural observations, Father Mark invites us to examine the picture of Christ we present to those around us.

Are we reflecting a harsh, judgmental deity, or a Savior of justice, forgiveness, and radical grace?

Key Takeaways

- How our daily choices act as our real answer to the question Jesus asks

- Why living out faith through practical love and justice changes communities

- The call to present a welcoming, compassionate Christ to a searching world

In this powerful sermon, William Pearson explores the encounter between Jesus and the Canaanite woman in the Gospel of Matthew [00:03]. Set right after Jesus' teaching on ritual purity, this story reveals a radical, boundary-breaking faith that confronts social hierarchies, prejudice, and human expectations [00:26].Discover how a mother's desperate love and unrelenting faith allowed her to glimpse the Kingdom of God—and what it teaches us about overcoming the barriers in our own lives today [04:22].📖 Scripture Focus: Matthew 15📍 Speaker: William Pearson⛪ Church: St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church

The Reverend Ellen Singer delivers the sermon for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost, "God in the Silence".

In 1897 a group of Texas educators went looking for a cooler place to hold a summer school. Boulder, Colorado, won the contract. The trouble was the site: a bare mesa at the foot of the mountains with nothing on it but grass and rock and a view. Thousands of people would soon board trains in Fort Worth, ride north, and arrive at the end of a long journey, hungry. Boulder had fifty three days.Hold that hillside, because it is where the Gospel starts.Jesus has just heard that John the Baptist is dead. He gets in a boat looking for a deserted place to grieve, and the crowds follow him around the shore on foot. Thousands of them. Grieving and exhausted, he looks at them and his stomach turns over with mercy. Evening comes and the disciples do the math and bring him the only sensible plan anyone has: send them away. Jesus says no. They need not go away. And when the disciples protest that five loaves and two fish is nothing, he does not tell them to try harder or find more. He says, bring them here to me.This sermon is about what God does with our nothing. Everyone ate. Everyone was filled. And there were twelve baskets left over, more at the end than at the beginning, which is not arithmetic. That is what God is like. Nobody on that grass was asked where they came from, or whether they had earned it, or whether they had done the right things. Jesus fed a crowd he never vetted. Thank God, because if he had, none of us would be at this table.Empty hands are not a disqualification. Empty hands are what Jesus asks for.Reading: Matthew 14:13-21 (Proper 13)Preached on Call to Feed the Hungry SundaySt. Martin's Episcopal Church, Keller, Texas