I love this quote from Karl Barth – but you might have to read it slowly a few times!
“Our initial point is that God himself wills to reveal himself. He himself wills to attest his revelation. He himself — not we — has done this and wills to do it. Preaching, then, takes place in listening to the self-revealing will of God. Preachers are drawn into this even. It is of concern to them. They are called by this event. The event becomes a constituent part of their own existence. Because God has revealed himself wills to reveal himself,and because preachers are confronted by this event, their preaching — if they are commissioned to preach — is necessarily governed by it in both content and form, in the logical content of what is said and in their relation to the fact that God has revealed himself and will reveal himself. Preaching is not a neutral activity. It is not an action involving two equal partners. It can mean only Lordship on God’s side and obedience on ours.”
–Karl Barth, Homiletics (Louisville, KY: WJK, 1991), 50.
Thanks to Halden.