A Summer Road Trip: The Highway to Hope

SERMON TITLE:   “A Highway to Hope”  (Summer Road Trip Series #1) 
SERMON TEXT:    Isaiah 35:1-10
PREACHER:           Rev. Kim James
OCCASION:           August 2, 2020, at First UMC
 
 
INTRODUCTION
 
                A number of you have asked me where I went on my vacation.  Sadly, in this year of the coronavirus, it’s pretty hard to travel anywhere safely.  So, instead of our usual road trip to Oregon or Montana to see our mothers, Steve and I had a staycation.  My days off mostly included binge-watching some TV programs and sleeping late every morning, doing a lot of reading, and catching up on projects that needed to be done at home.  But one day Steve and I did take a drive up into the Ogden Valley.  We checked out Causey Reservoir.  We drove into a campground and sat for an hour or so at a picnic table and read our books alongside a lovely and peacefully-babbling creek.  Northwest of Liberty, we hiked up a mountain trail to a waterfall.  And, while it was still daylight, we located the North Fork dark sky park.  Then later on that clear moonless night, we returned there, laid out a blanket on the ground, and gazed up at the magnificent stars in God’s heaven.
                All that was restful and good.  I’m so grateful that David and Austin Barron made it possible for me to have some much-needed days off.  Thank you again, David, for organizing and leading worship the past two Sundays.  And thank you, Austin, for using your cell phone to record and post the services to Facebook Live. 
                So, yes, I had a good staycation.  But I have to say that I did miss the vacation ritual of going on a long road trip to someplace far away.  Since maybe you have been feeling cooped up like that too, I decided that--before summer comes to an end--we would devote this month of August to biblical-style road trips.  Each of these five Sundays, we will explore a different Bible passage about a road and see what it has to offer us in the way of spiritual scenery and wayside wisdom.  Today we begin with Isaiah 35 and the Highway to Hope. 

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