Viva Vox: Rediscovering the Sacramentality of the Word through the Annunciation (Emerging Scholars)

In failing to take the sacramentality of the word of God seriously the preaching of the church has suffered negative consequences. As a result preaching is often at best a form of instruction; at worst it is an incantation of sorts rather than an integral part of deepening our relationship with Christ by functioning sacramentally to bring about divine participation with Jesus corporeal humanity in his living word. To recover this sacramental reality this volume argues that one should consider the annunciation to Mary where with the sermon of Gabriel the corporeal Christ took up residence in the flesh of his hearer and delivered to her precisely what was contained within his own flesh: the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9). When understood as a biblical paradigm for the church it becomes clear that what happened to Mary can indeed happen to Christians of the present day. Proclamation thus delivers the Christ to us.