A bunch of scattered thoughts today:
Agape Food Bank
I have visited the Agape Food Bank in Lynden twice this season, and it is overwhelming! There are so many families (around 500/week) being served by that food bank, many of whom are seasonal workers, some of whom are even our parishioners. It is impressive to see what Agape has grown into over the last few years.
However, the youth groups are no longer coming, but there are still two weeks of foodbanks left, and the 3 raining Agape staffers are unable to run such a large operation by themselves. Are you able to donate some time during the day on Wednesday, to drive up to Lynden? If so, please sign up here.
Location: Lynden School District Offices Cafeteria, 516 Main St., Lynden
Contact Kelsey Harrington with questions: kelsey.harrington@seattlearch.org
Treasure Sale
I am soooooo excited about the Treasure Sale this weekend. It was not still running when I arrived, and I was pretty skeptical of it when I heard about it (when my home parish would do rummage sales, it was pretty junky and there was also a bunch of junk left over). However, speaking with Theresa about it, and actually seeing the stuff in our gym, this thing is going to be FUN!
YouTube
Thank you everyone who subscribed to our YouTube channel! Now I have to figure out the system and write a manual for our volunteers, and we will be good to start streaming over there.
“Rich Men North of Richmond”
A previously unknown singer, Oliver Anthony, went viral on YouTube last week with a song called “Rich Men North of Richmond”. There are parts of the song that I do not love, but it is masterfully done, and I have been thinking a lot about it. I grew up listening to country music, in its transitional 90s phase where it still told some good stories but was beginning to just be pop music with a twang. Today, country music has ended up being yet another celebration of hedonism, like the rest of pop culture, but with token shout-outs to tractors, trucks, dirt roads, beer, and fake-sounding mentions of God and family. I find little redeeming about the genre as it currently stands.
But at its best, country music is not about small town vs. city; it is an authentic, almost guttural expression of the working man and his daily experience (Anthony has another excellent example of this here), something that hits us deeply in our humanity even if we do not work blue collar jobs. True country anthems – and really the best songs in any genre –build on the themes of sacrifice and sin, and these hit us deeply because this is the Christian life. We need music that acknowledges that we are sinners that struggle to do what we know is right. We need music that valorizes sacrifice – the sacrifices made for us and the sacrifices that we make for others – rather than solely celebrating pleasures, wealth, and hedonism. Even if it does not mention Christ specifically, those of us who follow the Lord know that sin and sacrifice are the most profound human realities. This seems to be the vein that Anthony has tapped into, that so much of our music and culture has forgotten. He struggles to sacrifice himself every day, and he feels that others around him, politicians especially, are refusing to sacrifice along with him and are instead demanding more sacrifice from him. We want people who work hard for their families and communities, we want to be those people, we want to celebrate those people. But, and this is the Christian addition to the mix, we want these sacrifices to be freely given (rather than demanded), because freely given sacrifices most closely mimic Jesus, making them saving sacrifices.
Fr. Moore 