司祭　スコット　マーレー
The Rev. Scott Murray

As you read these passages there seems to be a common thread through them. That would be the notion of pride/humility. As we start with the OT, note the images of greatness as set up and then contrasted by the prophet. "Cedars of Lebanon...oaks of Bashon...high mountains...high towers...the ships of Tarshish." These all would provoke images of greatness, awe and wonder to those who first heard these words. But to have pride in all this is nothing, he says. The haughtiness of man, that is, striving to stand in the glory of great natural things and things which are man made is for naught, to become instead a humbling experience.
In Paul's letter to the Romans, although not so easy to see, the thread is there. Our old selves, our prideful selves, and buried with Christ. they have no value. In our resurrection, our rising with Christ, we come to an understanding of how nothing we do of ourselves (the root of pride) will work toward our redemption. That pride turns into humility in our baptism.
And the gospel reading reads the same as well. Wrongful pride in ourselves, our family, and whatever is what will kill us and separate us from the kingdom. Receiving someone is a very humbling act. Jesus speaks strongly to his disciples and to us to be ones who receive others with hospitality. The final line about simply giving a cup of water is telling one. It is in the humble act through which one enters the kingdom.