Harvest Thanksgiving Sermon
Sunday October 11, 2026
Whether we blame the northern climate—which so colors the Canadian experience and outlook—or something else that has worked its way into the Canadian identity, Canadians absolutely love long weekends. By midday of the Friday before a long weekend, you can feel the frenzy starting to build. We shop for food and whatever takes our fancy for the holiday as if the end of the world is right around the corner. I once overheard a heated exchange between a couple in a supermarket aisle: as the husband complained about how much stuff his wife was adding to the cart, she answered, “You’ve got to remember, the stores are closed on Monday!” Panic seems to seize the public’s ability to think straight. You overhear conversations everywhere about plans for the day off, while drivers pick up speed on city streets and provincial highways, fueled by adrenaline and a long list of tasks that just have to get done. Lineups at gas pumps and liquor stores seem never-ending. Something akin to an apocalyptic expectation grips young and old alike as the countdown begins—and yet, it is just one extra day; a three-day weekend that gets Canadian hearts pumping.
The Thanksgiving long weekend is the last in a series that began with Good Friday. We will have to wait until Christmas for another break from the daily grind of work, school, and commitments. The first North American Thanksgiving may have taken place in 1578, when explorer Sir Martin Frobisher and his crew sat down to a meal of salt beef, biscuits, and mushy peas, thanking God for their safe arrival in Newfoundland after navigating the frigid waters of the North Atlantic in search of the Northwest Passage. However, it was only in 1957 that the second Monday of October became the official day of Thanksgiving in Canada.
Thanksgiving originally took root in Upper Canada (now Ontario) as a day to give thanks to God for bringing people through difficult times. Given the early settlers’ European roots, harvest festivals were not new, but in the wilderness and isolation of Upper Canada—with its cold, brutal winters—Thanksgiving took on an added depth of meaning. Thanking God for the fruits of the harvest was natural, but another dimension emerged: the same Lord of the harvest had brought them safely to a new home hewn out of raw forest. Many were Loyalists who had fled the new American republic, leaving behind well-developed towns and family farms. Joined by settlers from the British Isles and Europe, they weathered many storms against steep odds to build new lives from scratch. In doing so, another defining Canadian trait took root: looking out for your neighbor and taking care of one another.
While Ontario today looks very different from Upper Canada of the 1790s and early 1800s, our giving of thanks remains tied to the fall harvest. Although most of the population now lives in cities, removed from the daily routine of the farm, the fruits of the harvest still decorate our churches and homes. Gathering around a table to share a meal with family and friends remains a highlight of the weekend. We gather to ask the Lord’s blessing in a world driven by computers, technology, and high-tech service industries—taking a pause to give thanks in a world vastly different from the one our forebears knew.
Thanksgiving is an ideal time for us to give thanks for the good things we enjoy as a church community: worshipping together, growing in faith, aiming to know and love God, and following the call of Christ’s gospel. As the hymn says: “Give us grace to love as brothers all whose burdens we can share; for where your name binds us together, you Lord Christ will surely be.” Today is a good time to take stock of our common life and commit to renewing our fellowship in prayer.
Prayer is central to who we are as God’s people, particularly how we pray when gathered for worship. Much of the beauty of our worship is tied to a liturgy rooted in the earliest days of the Christian community—the Eucharist taking shape from synagogue worship and Christ’s command to break bread in his memory. Liturgy literally means “the work of God’s people,” and at its heart, prayer is simply a conversation with God about our needs, our concerns, and the needs of others and the world.
Our corporate prayer life can be greatly enriched by regularly including specific petitions of thanksgiving in our Sunday intercessions. Rather than quickly rushing through a list of requests, we can pause to name specific gifts and graces—a birthday, an anniversary, the birth of a grandchild, or recovery from surgery. Pausing before prayers, such as the collect of the day, allows us to truly hear and absorb their meaning. At a previous parish, we placed a Book of Intercession and Thanksgiving at the back of the church where parishioners wrote down their prayers, which were then brought forward during worship.
When I was growing up in Toronto during the 1950s, if I complained about dinner, my mother would always say, “You should be thankful for what you’ve got—there are many boys and girls who would give their eye teeth to have what you have.” While times have changed, her underlying lesson remains true: the starting point in counting our blessings must surely be God—the God who loves us, gave us life, never stops loving us, and is the source and end of all that truly matters. This Thanksgiving weekend, let us offer God our sincere thanks for all He continually does for us.
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Father Ted Hales