Postils for Preaching

Postils for Preaching repristinates an old term for commentaries on the appointed texts by assisting preachers in their time-honored calling of preaching the Word. Post illa, some think, probably refers to the reflecting after this (meaning upon the texts) that preachers must do in the context of the lives of their congregations and larger communities. These essays do not aim to be sermons but sermon-starters, goads and incitements to consider the assigned texts with serious imagination and good humor, all in the context of the church year and its inter-textual connections. The intention of this publication is to dip into a lifetime of that exegetical and homiletical bag of tricks as Jesus himself obliquely recommended when he noted how every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old (Matt 13:52). Please consider these postils a thesaurus (treasury) from which to borrow insights, references, and allusions as needed and found of value. These reflections on the texts from Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary will be wonderfully helpful to preachers. The essays are refreshingly informal and provocatively thoughtful. Karl Barth once wrote that preaching preparation consists of explication, meditation, and application. Rollefson helps with explication and application, but I think the book will be invaluable in that essential time of meditation where the preacher reflects prayerfully and imaginatively on text and congregation alike. And preachers should be sure not to skip the preface, which is not just a preface but a treasury of advice from a wise and skillful pastor and preacher. --David Bartlett, Yale Divinity School and Columbia Theological Seminary, Emeritus John Rollefson is a retired Lutheran pastor (ELCA) having served urban and campus congregations in San Francisco, Milwaukee, Ann Arbor, and Los Angeles. His schooling has taken him from Decorah to New Haven to Edinburgh, and from London to Berkeley, with stops along the way at Collegevillle and Cambridge Massachusetts. He lives in San Luis Obispo, California, with his wife Ruth, a retired vocal music teacher and church musician. …