Retelling the Bible with Rev. Scott McAndless

If there’s one thing we know as ministry leaders, it’s that stories matter. They connect us, teach us, and reveal truths in ways no lecture ever could. Jesus himself taught in parables, captivating his listeners and helping them see God’s kingdom in ways they never expected. Our guest this week, this week on the Ministry Forum podcast - Rev. Scott McAndless has a gift for storytelling—something you can tell as soon as you hear him talk. On this own podcast - Retelling the Bible, he retells a biblical story in a way that makes you sit up and listen, almost as though you’re hearing it for the first time. But it’s not just a creative exercise. It’s about digging into scripture, exploring its richness, and letting it speak in ways that resonate deeply with today’s world.

A little bit about Rev. McAndless

Scott McAndless was born and raised in Toronto, he started his professional life with Campus Crusade for Christ before feeling called to ministry in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. After studying theology in Montreal, he served congregations in Quebec and Ontario, helping one church navigate the difficult decision to dissolve, and bringing creativity and vitality to another through video skits and storytelling.

Currently serving at St. Andrew’s Hespeler Presbyterian Church in Cambridge, Ontario, Scott lives out his passion for narratives, whether it’s creating skits with the kids in his congregation or crafting episodes of his podcast. His book, Caesar’s Census, God’s Jubilee, offers a reimagining of the nativity story, challenging readers to see it in new ways.

Episode 10 of the Ministry Forum Podcast - That’s A Wrap On Season One!

In the tenth episode (and season one finale) of the Ministry Forum Podcast, Rev. Scott McAndless takes us on a journey through his passion for storytelling and the creative process behind Retelling the Bible. Scott reflects on how his storytelling began during his time in Leamington, where he started crafting skits based on Bible passages to engage the children in his congregation. He would record these playful, thoughtful retellings with kids, then share them during worship for the whole church to engage with. What began as a tool for teaching kids quickly became a meaningful, intergenerational way for the entire congregation to connect with scripture.

Scott’s talks about how he is always writing—it’s an ongoing process, a way to keep turning stories over in his mind and finding new ways to tell them. This constant engagement with the text has led Scott to unexpected revelations, even about stories he thought he knew well.

For instance, when he retold the story of Hosea and Gomer, he discovered a troubling side to Hosea’s actions—ones he came to see as controlling and abusive rather than purely loving and faithful. These moments of discovery can remind us all how scripture can surprise us and challenge us even when we’ve read a story many times before.

As we enter the season of Advent we asked Scott to bring us back to the story that launched his podcast journey: the nativity. He shares the story of The Stranger with us - a retelling of the Annunciation from the first season of Retelling the Bible. In this reimagining, Gabriel isn’t the glowing, winged figure we often imagine. Instead, he appears as a shabby, unassuming stranger who unsettles Mary with his greeting. This fresh perspective invites us to see the Annunciation in a new light, drawing parallels to Abraham and Sarah’s encounter with three mysterious visitors in Genesis.

Scott’s retelling asks important questions: How often do we miss divine moments because they don’t look the way we expect? How often do we, like Mary, wrestle with fear before stepping into faith? And what might it mean to extend hospitality, even to the ordinary and unexpected, as though we are welcoming God?

If you’re looking for a way to reconnect with scripture, check out Retelling the Bible. Whether you’re retelling these stories for a congregation, a youth group, or even for yourself, Scott’s work is a reminder of the power of narratives to teach, connect, and transform.

Listen to episode ten of the Ministry Forum podcast with guest Rev. Scott McAndless here.

Read the episode The Stranger:

Every afternoon after a hard day's work in the fields, Mary's father is in the habit of stopping for a while in the village square for a little cup of wine and a chance to catch up with his friends. Mostly they talk about the weather and how the olive trees are doing and other little matters of everyday life. Occasionally, the events going on in the wider world intrude into their discussions; what King Herod Antipas is building up in the huge city of Sephora  - a whole days walk away, New Roman taxes that are being proposed down south in Judea.

Only rarely do they talk about what is happening in the village, because, well, nothing ever happens in Nazareth, the place is far off the beaten track up in the hills, and nobody ever comes here. In fact, the last interesting thing that happened here was over a generation ago when a new family arrived and settled in. They were refugees from Judea, far to the south they came, according to the rumors that flew everywhere from the town of Bethlehem, but as refugees from the economic policies of Herod the Great, they had brought almost nothing with them, only a few basic tools that allowed them to scrape out a living as carpenters in the local region, as is always the case in a small village where nothing ever changes, it wasn't easy for the new family to fit in, people who have known them for decades now, whose children have grown up with theirs still treat them like outsiders, but they are good people, and the village has gradually warmed to them.

In fact, the next big event that is expected to happen in the village is a marriage Joseph, the young son of the new family, is to marry Mary. Her father is very pleased with the match that he has made for his daughter. For though his family is even poorer than most in Nazareth, Joseph is a fine young man, and he has every confidence that he will do well by Mary. You, one day when Mary's father stops by the square, his friends have plenty to talk about. For a stranger has appeared that very day in the village, everyone is busy speculating about him and gossiping about him. They say he must have come from the south because he speaks with a strange accent. He is dressed far too shabbily to be a merchant or a traveling nobleman, and so it has been concluded that he must be a homeless wanderer or perhaps an escaped slave, he is not, in other words, the kind of person that anyone wants around, why he might even be a rebel or a bandit, and welcoming someone like that can be very dangerous these days. That is why everyone has been going out of their way to make the young and admittedly very handsome man feel most unwelcome in Nazareth. They are just hoping that he will get the message and move on as quickly as possible. As soon as he hears the tale, Mary's father knows that this is just not the right reaction. He immediately sets out to find the man. It does not take long and Nazareth. After all, is not a big place. When he finds him, he immediately bows down low to the ground and says, Please, sir, you would do my family a great honor, if only you would consent to come and lay down your belongings in our house this night and allow us to share our bread for the day. So gracious is the invitation that the stranger must accept when her father arrives with the stranger, Mary is the only one at home. She is just returning from the well with water to prepare the evening meal. Her mother is still at work in the fields with the other women. Her brothers are likewise occupied once he has installed the stranger in the kitchen, Mary's father hurries out to meet her at the door. Daughter, he says there was a man in the village. He had no place to go, and no one would welcome him, and so I have brought him here to share our table tonight. Mary nods, but she cannot keep surprise and even a bit of fear from showing on her face. She has always been a quiet and dutiful child, but she cannot believe that her father has invited a complete stranger into their home. Father, she has to say, You know what Mother will think about you inviting such a man as this into our home, we are living in dangerous times, times when associations with the wrong kinds of people can mean a death sentence. Mother would call this foolishness, and she would be right.

Mary, Mary, Mary, your mother is a very wise woman, I know, but she would be wrong about this. Everyone in Nazareth is wrong. Come on. You know the story I've told it to you often enough. It was your favorite when you were seven.

What story? Mary asks

About the time when father Abraham was sitting outside his tent 

Ah yes. Mary interrupts, and Three men came along

Three strangers, adds her father, complete strangers that he knew nothing about. And yet Abraham did not hesitate to greet them as lords and treat them with great honor. He invited them to sit under a tree and asked his wife to prepare them a meal.

Yes, I remember, and Sarah made three barley cakes and served them with a fine calf and curds and whey, a feast fit for a king.

That is right, Mary. But then, as they eat together, something amazing happened, didn't it?

Oh, yes, Mary's eyes flash.

Abraham and Sarah discovered that these men weren't strangers at all. In fact, in the midst of the meal, they discovered that it was God who had been there all along. And that's not all. The Lord even made a promise to Sarah that she would have a son. Sarah laughed at the very idea. It was impossible because she was so old, but God's promise was fulfilled. 

Yes, dear child, it was God's promises are always sure, and that was how they knew for sure that God had visited them. And because Abraham and Sarah encountered God by welcoming strangers in my household, we will never turn one away. You never know who you might be turning away.

But surely, Father, you don't think that this man is some kind of heavenly visitor, do you? 

Her father's chuckle is a low rumble in the back of his throat.

No, my daughter, I'm sure he's just another man who has lost everything and is reduced to wandering. But while this house remains mine, we will welcome him as if he were Herod Antipas himself. Now you go and take him a cup of wine and a barley cake. While I see what kind of meal we can put together out back.

As she enters the kitchen with the cup of wine, Mary resolves that she will not speak to the stranger, that she will not even lift her eyes to look upon him. It is her duty to serve him, as her father has commanded, but she will do it with all modesty and humility as is fitting for a young woman of Nazareth. Of course, it never occurs to her that he might notice her, much less speak to her. Men are trained all their lives to believe that a woman is of no account and that she has nothing important to say.

That is why she jumps, almost spilling the wine when he turns and looks straight at her with a piercing glance.

Greetings. He says, You are indeed highly favored. The Lord is with you.

Mary does not know what to make of such a greeting. For a moment, she thinks he is mocking her, but he looks at her so seriously that she dares not laugh. She doesn't know what to say, and so she just lets him continue.

Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. You will conceive and bear a son. He even goes on from there to tell her what name she ought to give such a son. Now that is ridiculous. She knows very well that she is not about to have a son no matter what he is called and speaking of names, how does he know hers? She is sure that her father hasn't mentioned it to him. Mary can't help but laugh.

Now, a child me, that's impossible. I am a virgin.

Do you laugh? Says the stranger. I remember another who laughed as well 

An odd thrill passes through Mary's whole body. She is suddenly fully awake and aware of everything around her. She just knows that she is in the presence of something that she cannot quite explain.

The stranger, continues, Mary, you need to learn what she learned, that nothing is impossible, not when God is involved 

Mary has no response to that, and so she retreats into the humility that has been drilled into her since birth.

Sir, I am nothing but a simple servant. 

But at that moment, she feels a strange surge of boldness pass through her, and she lifts her eyes to meet his, but I will serve the Lord and be a slave to no one else.

At this the stranger merely nods and seems quite satisfied. Mary flees the room in confusion while he sips his wine.

When she returns to the room, but a few minutes later, the man is gone. She does not see him again. No one does. They inquire throughout the village the next day, but it seems that he has stayed in no other home. There is no trace of him at all. He has simply disappeared. Mary ponders long and hard at the meaning of her strange conversation with this man, but that day, she only has one question for her father.

Did he say where he was from? Father? What was his family and his name?

She wants to know of his village and family. He would tell me nothing, my daughter, but as for his name. He called himself Gabriel.

The visit of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, an event known in the Christian tradition as the Annunciation, is one of those biblical stories that caught the attention of Christians right from the very beginning. As a result, the scene has been painted and depicted over and over again, easily, over a million times in the last two millennia, every painting, sculpture or picture I have been able to find depicts the same thing. Gabriel has the whole kit, flowing white robes, wings, halo, and he is bathed in an unearthly light. Anyone confronted by such a figure would know themselves to be in the presence of one of God's angels. But where does that shining description of the angel Gabriel come from? It doesn't come from the Gospel. The Gospel of Luke provides no description of the visitor whatsoever. So the artists who have painted that scene have taken that description from tradition and from their own imaginations, but not from the pages of the Bible, I believe that it was the author's intention that we hear this story more like I have tried to present it here. It isn't supposed to be immediately obvious who Gabriel is and what he represents. The reason why I think that is because I see clear parallels between this story and the story in the book of Genesis, when Abraham and Sarah encounter three strangers who turn out, in some strange way to be God, hopefully having heard the story in this new way, you can see those parallels more clearly.