Stuck in a Rut - Pt 1

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:6-11 ESV).

All of us have experienced the feeling of being stuck in a “rut.” Sometimes I find myself stuck in a mental rut of sort. Not long ago, at our 50th High School Reunion, someone gave me a picture of several of us at a party of some sort. We tried to name all the others in the picture and got all of them but one. That put me in a mental rut. I had to find out who the other person was. I asked other classmates with no positive response. Then, in frustration and some hope, I posted it on social media and asked others to join me in the metal quest. Fortunately an answer was forthcoming and the mystery was solved. Ruts can be problematic for all of us. In our reading today we see the eleven remaining disciples (since Judas Iscariot was dead at this point) in a rut. Jesus was preparing them for his ascension and encouraging them with the news of the coming of the Holy Spirit; and, they couldn’t get past their old understanding. They were in danger of missing this wonderful new work of Jesus. Ruts are always a danger like that. Jesus had to deal with the disciples on this before the Church even got started. Let me set the stage a bit. Jesus has just finished with commanding “Don’t leave but wait! The Holy Spirit is the gift worth waiting for…” and you’d expect the disciples to break into a happy dance or at least be on the lookout for this gift all the while asking, “Are we there yet?” they did just the opposite. Jesus was talking about the Kingdom OF God and these disciples are still there asking about the Kingdom TO Israel. They were about to miss the grand entrance of the Church Age. I sometimes wonder if we aren’t like that today. You may have even responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit with a stubborn response of “But, we’ve always done it the other way.” That’s a sure sign you’re stuck. We’ll be looking at the way we can fix that in our lives over the next few days. For now, confess your tendency to get stuck and ask the Lord to open your heart and mind.