Gospel Pilgrimage Stories
A Modern Translation + Paraphrase of Gospel Texts and Illustrations
by
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Inspired by Mark 1:1-11 5
IN THE BEGINNING OF THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST,
THE MESSIAH, THE SON OF GOD,
THE ONE WHO DESCENDED FROM GOD,
AS IT WAS ATTESTED TO BY ISAIAH THE PROPHET:
“LOOK HERE!
I AM SENDING OUT MY ANGEL TO CONFRONT YOU
WHO WILL PAVE YOUR WAY.
A VOICE DECLARES IN THE WASTELAND,
‘PREPARE THE WAY OF “THE ONE WHO IS”;
MAKE THE PATH STRAIGHT FOR GOD’.“
JOHN THE BAPTIST APPEARED IN THE WASTELAND
AND HE ANNOUNCED A BAPTISM
FOR THE CHANGING OF ONE’S HEART & MIND
IN ORDER TO FORGIVE
AS WELL AS BE FORGIVEN OF SINS.
AND PEOPLE JOURNEYED OUT TO HIM
FROM THE WHOLE REGION OF JUDEA,
ESPECIALLY FROM JERUSALEM;
AND THEY WERE BAPTIZED BY HIM
IN THE WATERS OF THE JORDAN,
CONFESSING THEIR SELFISH THOUGHTS & DEEDS.
NOW, JOHN WAS CLOTHED WITH CAMEL’S HAIR
AND GIRDED ABOUT THE WAIST WITH A LEATHER BELT;
AND HE ATE LOCUSTS,
AND HONEY FROM WILD BEES.
AND HE PUBLICLY PROCLAIMED,
“AFTER ME COMES ONE WHO IS MORE POWERFUL THAN I,
THE THONG OF WHOSE SANDALS
I AM NOT WORTHY TO STOOP DOWN & UNTIE.
I AM BAPTIZING YOU BY WATER ALONE,
BUT HE WILL BAPTIZE YOU
IN A GREAT SPIRIT OF HOLINESS.”
AND THEN IN THOSE DAYS, 6
JESUS CAME FROM NAZARETH OF THE GALILEE;
AND WAS BAPTIZED BY JOHN IN THE JORDAN.
AND INSTANTLY, AS HE ASCENDED FROM THE WATERS,
HE SAW A SPLITTING OPEN OF THE HEAVENS;
AND THE GREAT SPIRIT LIKE A DOVE
CAME DOWN TO HIM.
AND A VOICE CAME FROM THE OPEN HEAVENS:
“YOU ARE THE ONE WHO COMES FROM ME.
YOU ARE ONE WHO IS BELOVED;
IN YOU I DELIGHT!”
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About the Book
This book is a companion to the storytelling project I did in the summer of 2007. It was called a Gospel Storytelling Pilgrimage as I stopped to visit churches, mentors, family, and friends along my way to the 26th General Synod of the United Church of Christ—which was also celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. I drove up from Florida to Hartford, Connecticut, for GS XXVI then on to Massachusetts and back through New York, Pennsylvania, and finally to Washington, DC. From there I took a nice Auto Train ride back home. There were nineteen scheduled performances, and at 7:00 p.m. each day, I presented a forty-five-minute biblical storytelling program followed by discussion. These are Gospel stories I translated or paraphrased from the Greek, using inclusive language to unpack meaning. The use of capital letters is a reminder of how these texts were often written in ancient times. The drawings are my own and serve more like medieval illuminations rather than illustrations. Jesus @ 2000 was the basic design for my entry into a national art contest. The top fifty were published—mine must’ve been fifty-first . . .
About the Author
Drew Willard has been telling Biblical stories since he was a student at Lancaster Theological Seminary (UCC) and attended his first Network of Biblical Storytellers festival gathering in 1987. In the early 1990s, he began to do his own translations and paraphrases of Gospel narratives, bringing them alive for his listeners as he puts them in his own words. At this writing, Pastor Drew (“PaDre”) serves the United Church of Christ at The Villages in north central Florida - where he has used these scripts for recitations with his congregation and in interfaith ‘evenings of sacred storytelling’ as well as ‘Gospel pilgrimage’ roadtrips.
The texts of this book are written in capitals to be reminiscent of an ancient format for sacred scripture (which were written in continuous lines without punctuation). Indentation serves as an aid for memorization.