Going Postil!

I ordered "The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther", a seven volume set sold by Christian Book Distributors (CBD) at christianbook.com. It's not the complete sermons of Martin Luther at all. It's the complete postils of Martin Luther.

What in all day Friday is a postil? Well, the term is also given as postilla, and is short from a Latin phrase, post illa verba textus, and it means a marginal note to a Biblical text, a little note written in the margin of a Bible. Then, such notes being commentaries, it expanded to mean a commentary separate from but attached to a Biblical text. Then it became a word for a homily, which is not the same thing as a sermon, but a sermon on a Biblical text, usually one of the ones just read in a service, whereas a sermon can be on any theme. Finally, it referred to a cycle of homilies for the Biblical readings for the church year. This will be the real church year, not the one invented by Rome in the 1960s.

There are seven volumes to the set. The first four -- which were originally published as eight -- are the Kirchenpostille, the Church Postils, which are notes for pastors as a help in preparing sermons on the Biblical readings for the day, and the last three are the Hauspostille, the House Postils, later actual sermons preached by Luther. $40.98 delivered to the door. I'm not a pastor, I'm not preparing any sermons, I'm not even an elder now. But who would pass up study and devotional material like this for the Scripture passages we read through the church year, especially at the price!

The package shipped from Peabody MA 12 January 2009 and arrived at a Sortation Center of the United States Postal Service the same day in Northborough MA. The next day it left and arrived at a Sortation Center in Matinsburg WV. It left there the next day, 14 January 2009, and arrived at a Sortation Center in Brooklyn Park MN 16 January 2009. Monday through Friday. It left Brooklyn Park MN 19 Janauary 2009, Monday, with an estimated arrival at the destination, my house, 20 January. It actually arrived 22 January, 2009.

So the Postal Service completed its work as the postil service. But sortation? Sortation? Judas H Priest on a raft, what is sortation? Well, I guess I'll read the postils, and post about them after they are processed through my sortation center aka head.