I will go. . .

Who can understand it?  The Father knew the rebellion was coming.  He knew the creature would proclaim himself Creator and presume to know better than God.  But even this could not constrain the will and love of the Father to make all things.  But somehow in the midst of all of this, a voice comes.  The Son says "I will go...."  His assent was not to a scouting mission to report on how bad things had become but as the One who would redeem and restore the lost creation.  He did not come in a minute but after a very long time in which the things of each day were being groomed for the right and ripe moment when God would reveal redemption.  The prophets heard the call of God and most said, "I will go."  These messengers from God had come and gone and some of the people had listened and many rejected the warnings.  But one would hear the call of God and consent to His will.  It was the new Eve, blessed Mary the Virgin, who met the astonishing visit of the archangel with her own admission of inadequacy and her acknowledgement of the Lord's mercy by saying, "Let it be to me as you have said...."  Her vision of "I will go."

Our Lord assumed His mantle in public in the Jordan River at the hands of John the Forerunner.  On His way back from the wilderness where the new Adam sent the serpent packing, His first mission was to call disciples.  Though they did not know what they were in for, by the power of the Holy Spirit, they added their voice to Christ's willingness to serve.  "I will go."  Not even blessed Mary would suffer as Christ would suffer -- for her, for all, and for the life of the whole world.  Neither did the prophets and the apostles suffer as He suffered for them and for all who would hear the Gospel through them.  But that does not diminish the consent of faith.  "I will go" -- and go they did without wallet or luggage or spare cloak or sandals but trusting only in the mercy of God to sustain them.

Ordination is the pastor's opportunity say "I will go."  The Church speaks like the archangel on behalf of God and calls, judges, and sets these men in office.  But it is not without their own consent to the Church's judgment as God's very will and purpose.  When the pastor is installed, the people cry out their own willingness to hear the Word from this servant of the Word made flesh and to follow the staff of the undershepherd as if he were Christ -- which, of course, he is in so far as He is the voice through which Christ speaks, the hands through which Christ baptizes, the lips through which Christ liberates the sinner from his sins, and the body Christ uses to give to His people His own body and blood.

"I will go."  That is what the Christian says to the call of Christ still.  The Spirit is at work in the Word placed in the ear so that the heart and mind will instruct the mouth to give this brave consent.  We know not the future nor do we have any guarantees of the tomorrows we will know here -- only that God will accompany us, God will carry us, our names are written in the palm of His hand, and our future is tied to Christ and His resurrection to everlasting life.  But that is enough.  It was enough for Jesus.  He did not have to know everything.  He gladly admitted that He did not speak or act on His own but for the Father.  It was for the Father to know the day and the time when He would return to conclude His saving work with the judgment and the resurrection.  Neither do we have to know.  Our times are in His hands.  But Jesus, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, had taught us that the Father is trustworthy and the Spirit has beckoned our consent in trust so that we can also endure the crosses we must bear -- knowing the joy that is set before us!

Every day it works this way.  The Lord bids and we consent.  "I will go."  None of us are Jesus but all of us learn from Him to trust the love of the Father by the power of the Spirit.  We do not look back but learn like the plowman to look forward -- the north star of our lives is heaven and from it we know where we are on earth.  "I will go."  Like Philip we often complain along the way, worried that we do not know every detail of our future or where the earthly tomorrows will lead us.  But Christ is there.  "I know," He says. "But you know Me.  I am the way, the truth, and the life."  Where the world complains that this is not nearly enough, the Spirit works in our faith to say, "Okay, Lord.  I get it.  I will go."

When death comes near and we find our bodies frail and our minds and memories fragile, when every instinct of our lives is to stay, the Lord beckons to us in grace and the Spirit leads us to answer in faith, "I will go."  And with a sigh the life we thought was everything is released to the new life that really is everything.  We open our eyes and there is the Father.  He is leading us into His house.  "I will go."  The room is mine and the future I could not even imagine is now the only thing worth knowing.