In Canada, the second Monday in October is Thanksgiving Day, a statutory holiday across the country. Although it's a secular event, many churches choose to celebrate Harvest Thanksgiving on the Sunday of this weekend. St. Matthew's has generally moved that celebration ahead, usually to the last Sunday in September, which is more in tune with the agricultural year. This year we celebrated the harvest on Oct. 4, because of some logistical difficulties around a wedding and changing church decorations.

So on this Thanksgiving weekend we are simply celebrating the 19th Sunday after Pentecost, which poses or me some difficult choices in preaching paths. The lections for the day (Job 23:1-9, 16-17; Psalm 22:1-15;  Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31) do not lend themselves easily to a Thanksgiving theme. The Job reading and the Psalm are both laments. The Hebrews reading deals with the power of the word of God and Jesus as high priest. The Gospel lesson is a long excerpt from Mark, with four distinct sections, all converging on the general theme of self-denial, in particular with respect to wealth.