Once upon a time Meg and I were at the soccer fields watching our kids’ games and nearby there was the usual herd of younger siblings running up and down the area right behind us, our daughter among them. And there was a pile of dirt there too, probably from some sort of field maintenance work, so some of the kids were running up and down that. They were laughing and screaming - having a great time.

Then I saw this one kid pick up a clump of dirt or maybe a rock and throw it at another. He missed and it almost hit Elizabeth. So I said, “Hey, stop throwing dirt.” And this little kid, 4 or 5 years old picks up another clump, looks me right in the eye and throws it halfheartedly 5 or 6 feet, not at anyone but just to show me that he wasn’t going to obey what I said. While maintaining eye contact, which was impressive, he picked up another clump.

So I did what any man faced with such a direct challenge would do. While maintaining eye contact, I said, “Do I need to find your mother?” He still looked at me defiantly, but you could see his little mind coming to grips with his defeat. His head dropped, his shoulders dropped, and he dropped the clump of dirt and shuffled off to reevaluate his place in the universe.

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In 1975 the United States left South Vietnam. Shortly thereafter Saigon fell, and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees fled offshore on boats and began a long sojourn to find a new home. We called them the boat people. Many wound up in the United States. Some came here.

About that same time our state tried an experiment to reduce the amount of vegetation in many Florida lakes and rivers. They introduced the Tilapia, which was known for its voracious vegetarian appetite. The Tilapia is also a staple food in Vietnam, so this was a familiar friend in the midst of a totally new world for them.

Lakeland, where I grew up, has lots of lakes. And on just about any given day, on almost any lake, you would see Vietnamese men wading in the shallows, casting their nets for Tilapia. I don’t know if they were catching them for their families or to sell to the local markets and restaurants, but there they were, casting their nets.

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Today’s readings focus on God’s call. We tend to think of that in an initial sense of coming to know Christ, but it includes the ongoing, continuous call to follow Christ wherever he leads, and thereby grow into the people he is calling us to be.

We don’t really know what we can do until we’re pushed and pressed beyond our limits. That’s true for each of us individually and it’s true for us as a church. We didn’t know what we could do until we had to do it.

Ten months ago we had a challenge, a big challenge. Bishop Brewer closed us down and suddenly we didn’t know how to worship under those conditions. But within just a few days we figured out how to live stream worship, thanks to Spencer Carter with a big assist from Shawn Perkins. As we worked at it, there were a steady stream of obstacles to overcome and problems to solve. Our Wi-Fi wasn’t strong enough in the church and especially up in the altar area. The sound wasn’t good enough. The altar area was like a stage; we had to move into and out of camera range. It felt odd to talk to a camera instead of to you. I saw a meme of Forest Gump that said, “And just like that my pastor became a televangelist.”

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