"Actions speak louder than words." I'm sure you know this proverb well, and it is very evident in our worship this morning. We have witnessed the act of giving as our children brought forth food for the hungry. We have renewed our own covenants of membership by participating in the sacrament of baptism and the receiving of new members. Later, at the end of our service today, we will bring forward our pledges for the coming year. That leaves little time for the sermon, but I am sure you won't mind. Through these physical actions and movements, we are worshipping God in thanksgiving for all the blessings that have been bestowed upon us.

"On this coming Thursday, we will join together as a nation to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. This is a holiday that crosses all boundaries of faith and culture. Given the events of September 11th and its aftermath-terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, anthrax in the mail, our armed forces engaged in a war in Afghanistan-Thanksgiving takes on an even greater significance this year. Collectively, we come together as one people to remember and celebrate our blessings with family and friends.

"As Christians, we have a long tradition of giving thanks to God for our blessings. Our material blessings have always been linked to our spiritual blessings in the church. Over the past three weeks, you have heard sermons from my colleagues, Patricia and Larry, about how Paul worked so hard to collect money for the church in Jerusalem. In today's scripture from Paul's letter to the Romans, we hear how Paul has finally accomplished his mission. Paul promises to pay a visit to the Romans, but first he has to take care of some business. Here are his words from the 25th and 26th verses:

"After all of his preaching and pleading and exhorting, Paul is successful. He has convinced these Gentile churches on the Greek peninsula to give sacrificially to the Jewish Christian congregation across the Mediterranean, a world away, in Jerusalem.

"Why would Paul do that? Why doesn't he just worry about collecting enough money to support each congregation locally, or at least within its own region? Why worry about these other Christians in a place that they have only heard about and will probably never visit?

"Paul answers these questions in the very next verse:

Paul is telling us very plainly that, as Christians, we are unified by the gospel of Jesus Christ. No matter where we are in the world, we share the conviction that Christ brings each of us new life if we hear his teaching and believe in his resurrection. We are reminded by these words from Paul's letter to the Galatians that, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ" (Gal 3:28).

I believe that the other point that Paul is emphasizing is that our material blessings-our money and our assets-are not separate from our spiritual blessings. God has already given us both the spiritual and material blessings of our lives. We owe our very lives to God, from the miracle of our births to our dying breaths. It is in response to God's mercy and grace that we are asked to give generously of our material blessings.

Now, we all realize that we are living in difficult times. Our economy is in recession, we are fearful of the next terrorist attack, we are more uncertain of our future than ever before. Yet I am convinced that even with all of its faults and shortcomings, the church is more important in our lives than ever before. Millions of people who claim no church membership or even the title