Postils for Preaching. Commentaries on the Revised Common Lectionary. Year A.By John Rollefson. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2016.ISBN 978-1-4982-9046-3. xiv and 204 pages. Paper.$27. Postils for Preaching.Commentaries on the Revised Common Lectionary. Year B. By John Rollefson. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2016. ISBN 978-1-4982-9049-4. xv and 173 pages. Paper.$23.

A postil is a marginal note or a comment upon a text of Scripture or an expository discourse on the lessons assigned in the Revised Common Lectionary. These particular postilsrun about 1,000 to 1,200 words per Sunday and include all three readings and the Psalm appointed for the day. A third volume on year C is promised.

The “Postiler” is a retired ELCA pastor who understands his Lutheran roots ecumenically. For years he took the readings for the next Sunday on his pastoral calls or used them for devotions at meetings. What wisdom comes from a person who walks us through the whole three year lectionary! John Rollefson knows the Scriptures, the gospel, and life.

A few samples.

The Psalmist who wrote Psalm119 confessed in v. 105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” But the Psalmist who boasts “Your law is my delight, O Lord” (v. 174) confesses in the Psalm’s very last verse “I have gone astray like a lost sheep” (v. 176). Loving God’s law does not seem to keep one from trouble or misery.

Rollefson mixes in imagery and telling humor. A cartoon from the 1980s depicts two awe-struck figures, stopped dead in their tracks, looking upward at a huge sign on the wall proclaiming “LOATHE THY NEIGHBOR,” while the bubble above one of the figures wonders, “Didn’tit used to be love?”

He draws deeply from Robert H. Smith’s Wounded Lord: Reading John Through the Eyes of Thomas. When Thomas demanded to touch the wounds of Jesus, he was far from doubting. Rather he was declaring that a Jesus without wounds, and that means a Jesus without a cross, is not adequate to meet the deepest needs of humankind. Thomas insists: I will not confess as “my Lord and my God” anyone, even one who has been resurrected and glorified, if that one does not have wounds. A cross-less Christ, an unwounded Christ, is not the answer. Long-time readers of Currents will remember that Smith edited “Preaching Helps” in this journal for many years.

Rollefson deftly brings in great hymns, such as Brian Wren’s “Great God, Your Love Has Called Us.” This hymn sings winningly of how “we by love, for love were made.”

If you preach almost every Sunday, or if you worship in a church that follows the lectionary, do yourself a favor and buy these books and be ready for the next Sunday.

Ralph W. Klein

Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago