The Art of the Deal

Welcome to Hill Country Homilies. Weekly homilies from Holy Annunciation

Orthodox Church in Liberty Hill, Texas. Holy Annunciation is an

old calendar Orthodox church sharing the faith of the Apostles

and the love of Christ with all who seek His truth. Now,

let's listen to this week's homily and the.

Glory to Jesus Christ.

Have a seat if you like, you know, in our

modern culture, in our modern culture and even reaching back

some generations, there's always been a special set of wisdom,

if you will, that people pull out and apply specifically

to matters of business, and particularly to matters of deal

making and negotiations. Indeed, particularly in the last few decades,

there's an explosion of books giving advice on business and negotiation.

One of the most famous of those books you've probably

heard of. It was written by none other than Donald Trump,

entitled The.

Art of the Deal.

And in the Art of the Deal, Trump says a

few things about negotiation. He says, for example, leverage is key.

Don't make deals without it, rather use it to enhance

your position.

And later he says what.

Economic theory tells us as the basis of any transaction

when he says deals work best when each side gets

something that it wants from the other. Now, this is

the essence of free market economic theory. Two otherwise unrelated

parties enter into an agreement because one has something that

the other wants and vice versa. One has a product

or property, the other has money. They make the exchange,

and the happiness of each is increased because they've exchanged

something that they were willing to part with for something

that they desired. Now I find these things interesting because

my undergraduate degree was in business economics and we studied

this transactional approach that the free market theory requires. It's

said that we can apply economic theory to every human decision.

In fact, Ludwig von.

Mesis, who is probably the foremost free market economy economists

of our times, entitled his Treatise on Economics Human Action

to indicate.

That all that we do is driven by economic utility.

It's driven by this transactional evaluation as we seek to

maximize our personal utility. And in one class discussion I'll

Never Forget, the professor asked the class, what do you

call it? When one person's individual utility is increased by

the presence of another person and vice versa, and the

whole class sat there with looks on their face, until

the professor looked at us and answer his own questions, said,

we call that love even the greatest of emotions. In

our modern time, both in the world in an academia

is being reduced to a transaction or an exchange. But

in our gospel reading today we hear a very different

approach to human relationships and a very different ideal of love.

In today's Gospel, we hear the words of Christ to

the apostles. They are preparing to be sent out into

the fields where there would be doubters, mockers.

And to be sure of persecutors.

They would soon face people who want nothing to do

with them or their message, and who would most prefer

to seize and to kill their teacher. And Christ, with

his words, both prepares them for this eventuality and guides

us in understanding the true manner in which an orthodox

Christian must relate to other humans, both those that love

us and those that hate us. Christ begins by essentially

stating what we call today the Golden rule, as you would.

That men should do to you, do ye also.

To them likewise, But then he directs them in what

this means in a manner that is very contrary to

the egoistic and self focused approach of man.

He calls them that same way, to that same way of.

Living that Jeremiah recorded in his prophecy, writing that the

Lord says, this is my covenant, and I will that

I will make with the house of Israel. I will

surely put my laws into their mind and write them.

On their hearts. What Christ calls.

Us to is not the ways of man, but the

ways of God written onto our hearts.

Love ye your.

Enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping nothing again, and

your reward shall be great. And in doing so Christ

decimates the transactional approach to human relationships. For if you love,

then which love you, what thank have ye for? If

you do for sinners, also love those well. Then if

you do good to those who do good to you,

what thank have ye for sinners also do the same.

And if you lend to those from whom you hope

to receive, what thank heav ye for sinners, also lend

to sinners to receive as much. Again, every example that

Christ gives is an example that is contrary to our

fallen human nature, but fully emblematic of the nature of

the divine, and whose image we have been formed, but

whose like not, but whose likeness we were deprived by

the fault. And Christ, in these words of the apostles

and to us, calls our fallen human nature back to

the divine, where hate is met by love, where the

need is fulfilled without expectation of return. And the promise

he makes to us, should we do this is more

than we could ever expect. Your reward shall be great,

and ye shall be the children of the highest and

more than this. Christ makes clear that there is no

credit due to us when we act as the gentiles

of the sinners of the time and love and give

only to those who love us or who we expect

to profit from their repayment. For He says, if you

do good to them who do good to you, what

thanks you?

And say?

Indeed, says Christ condemns this type of giving. He condemns

this type of love as unprofitable to us. Saint Gregory

of Nissa goes even further, saying that when we engage

in this kind of transactional approach to our fellow man,

we're more like a criminal. He says, man ought to

shun that anxiety with which he seeks from the poor

man an increase of his own money in gold, extracting

a profit of baron metals.

Rather, if a man.

Should call for the harsh calculation of interest, theft or homicide,

he will not air for what is the difference whether

a man, by digging digging under a wall, gainst property

or possesses unlawfully by the charging of interest. Note the

import of Saint Gregory's work. Even if a transaction were legal,

even if it has the consent of both the parties,

it can still be to the condemination of one or both,

particularly where one party seeks to take advantage of the other. Now,

brothers and sisters, I don't think it takes too much

imagination to see how this reduction of human relationships to

simple transactional exchanges should be of as much or more

concerned today than at any time in the past. In

our consumer driven relationships often come about from a transactional perspective,

what can this person do for me? We see this

even at the youngest ages, as children or the parents

of children may seek out friends of friends or play

dates for their kids that they think can benefit them

socially or even sometimes financially, and we take that same

approach into school, into our careers, and I think we

can all think of examples even where that same approach

of seeking mutual benefit has gone all the way into

romantic relationships, family relationships, and even marriage. In fact, not

to get off track, but what the West has done

to marriage is a testament to this unholy focus on

transactional relationships. Unlike the Orthodox marriage ceremony, which recognizes and

blesses a marriage ordained by God for the salvation of

husband and wife, in the West, the marriage ceremony is

a trans action in itself.

It's a recitation of vowels and promises. It's even called

a marriage.

Contract at times, as if we conduce, as if we

can reduce God's ordained lifetime matrimony to a.

Legal obligation God forbid.

That Christ calls us to in this teaching is the

love that the world scoffs at, that it dismisses as naive,

or that marks one who offers such love is allowing

myself to be taken advantage of.

But what Christ is saying is that if we actually.

Love the way that God loves, we will be scoffed at.

We will be dismissed.

Loving, we may even be taken of advantage of. But

we are also in that same moment loving our brother

as our father in heaven loves us. And we are

doing unto others precisely how we pray that others would

do unto us if we were in a time of need.

In this modern time, Today's Gospel challenges us to love

family members, colleagues, and neighbors without expecting anything in return,

caring for elderly parents, supporting struggling friends, helping coworkers without

seeking or expecting two different things, without seeking or expecting

personal gain, and even more calls us to love those

who have wronged us, to offer our coat at risk

of being cold, to offer the other cheek at risk

of being struck, to love holy, knowing that we may

be rejected, just as God's own creation rejected him. It

is this unconditional love that marks us as children of God. So,

brothers and sisters, as we depart today, let us embrace

this greatest counsel of the Lord to do unto others

as we would have them do unto us. But let

us not do soach passively. Let us actively love. Let

us seek out those who are in pain and offer

them relief. Let us seek out those in hunger and

offer them nourishment. Those without means and offer them resources

with no expectation of a thank you, much less repayment

or recognition. And may we all embody the mercy of

our Father, that we two may be called children of

the Most High, in the name of the Father and

the San Ho Holy Spirit.

Amen.

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