THE APRON OF HUMILITY: THE HEART OF CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of
flesh.”
Ezekiel 36:26
Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos
What is the strongest weapon in the world? When the audience is first introduced to billionaire Tony Stark, the world’s most prolific weapon’s manufacturer, he is sipping from a martini glass arrogantly thinking that his company’s new top-secret weapon has made him invincible. Suddenly a bomb explodes, and the main character in the Iron Man film is taken hostage by a group of maniacal terrorists who threaten to kill him if he does not construct his new missile system for them. To make matters worse, upon regaining consciousness in an Afghanistan make-shift mountain laboratory, Stark discovers that his chest is tethered to a heart machine. The blast, ironically caused by one of his company’s own rockets, has so damaged his primary organ that Stark must now rely on something other than his own strength, fortune, and intelligence to keep him alive.
A prisoner of his own making, Stark has a spiritual epiphany and learns the hard lesson of humility. If he can successfully escape, he plans to return to America and announce his decision to shut down his company’s weapon division and employ the technology for peaceful alternatives. In a compelling scene, Stark dons a laboratory apron, the symbol of humility that now replaces the expensive silk suit and tie of his previous leadership persona, and diligently works towards the fulfillment of his new humanitarian vision. Turning the tables on his captors, Stark invents a small portable electromagnetic heart implant device to sustain his life and to provide the power for escape. The central tutorial of the Iron Man movie is thereby established. The strongest weapon in the world is the iron of a new heart – the apron of humility!
Exhorting the religious leaders of his day, Saint Peter uses the symbol of a servant’s apron to emphasize the requirement of humility. “Gird yourselves with humility,” he insists, because “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5). The Greek word that Peter uses literally means “to knot,” and therefore denotes the technical term for a servant’s apron that is tightly knotted behind the back. Most certainly referring to the “girding” or “aproning” of Jesus Himself who modeled the importance of humility when He washed the feet of His disciples prior to His Passion, Peter instructs church leaders to develop a similar lifestyle posture towards their respective flocks.
Christian leadership is tightly tied to the apron of humility. Our ability to lead and to provide “vision” is knotted to the degree that we are willing to be dependent on God’s strength, wisdom and direction, and not on our own. This, in fact, is the “new heart” that God told the Prophet Ezekiel must replace humanity’s “heart of stone” (36:26). Like the Iron Man character of Stark, we, too, must discover the need to replace the understanding of leadership as knowledge, invincibility, control and manipulation with that of humble service, sacrifice, divine inspiration, and love. The imprisoning tethers of self-promotion, independence, and privilege should be replaced with the liberating heartbeat of a God-inspired servanthood.
Throughout Holy Scripture, leaders are urged to gird themselves with the apron of humble service to others. This is the spiritual requirement that Saint Peter introduces to the hearts and minds of those who aspire to lead the Church. His wise exhortation is based on the fusion of an Old and New Testament principle that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34; 1 Peter 5:5). Like Peter, the first qualification that Saint Paul uses to describe the characteristic of a true leader is one who “desires” to serve under the “dominion” of God (1 Timothy 3). God-inspired leaders, therefore, are those who freely offer their time, resources and expertise without compulsion or the need for self-promotion. It is the humble of heart, those who have emptied themselves of any notion that their capacity for leadership is based on their own special ability, education or economic status that may be filled with the Divine Grace and thereby effectively utilized by God for His noble purposes.
What is the Incarnation of Christ but an icon of such humility, His emptying of Himself and becoming man? What characterizes His life on earth but humble obedience unto death? Jesus said it plainly, "I am gentle and humble in heart" (Matt. 11:29). Like Christ, we too must be willing to make submission to the will of God the very heart of our own leadership aspirations. Leadership is ultimately dependent on such an iron apron of service to others! Anything less is unprofitable to us and to others –
doomed from the onset!
Throughout history, aprons have filled many functions and have come in various lengths, fabric and materials. Mothers, blacksmiths, gardeners, doctors and waiters have worn their respective aprons as a tool, for protection and for literally wiping away blood, sweat and tears. Before playpens and other modern security devices, mothers would even attach their children to their apron strings so that they could play safely. Although the phrase evolved into an un-flattering image of an adult who remains dependent on their parents, this is exactly the critical lesson that religious leaders should not fear to affirm. The spiritually mature are never embarrassed to publicly acknowledge their continual need for guidance, advice, security, and affirmation from Christ.
The apron is also a useful image to associate with the tending of sheep. As shepherds of their respective spiritual flock, religious leaders may use the apron of humility for many purposes. As aprons are wonderful accessories for carrying food, leaders would be wise to employ the apron of humility to convey the life-sustaining truths of God’s Word to themselves and to their hungry flock.
Apart from providing nourishment, one of the primary responsibilities of a shepherd is the protection of his flock from enemies. Saint Peter encourages leaders to “resist Satan, who is always prowling like a lion for someone to devour . . . by standing firm in the truth" (1 Peter 5:8). In like fashion, leaders should be willing to flap the apron of God’s protective Truth against the approaching dangers of strange teachings, diverse philosophies, and destructive attitudes and choices. As aprons were also used in earlier times by nurses and doctors as slings and bandages, religious leaders could likewise employ the apron of God’ grace as an instrument that staunches the flow of physical, emotional and psychological wounds.
Unfortunately, for many Tony Starks today, the strategy of the apron is often perceived as simply charming but weak, as either too naïve or too radical for our postmodern organizational paradigms. We would rather design our leadership styles on Donald Trump and James Bond than that of the humility and modesty of an aproned servant. The honest reality, however, is that we should spend as much if not more time and effort attending to the core truths and spiritual postures of Holy Tradition taught at Bible studies and expressed in worship and the lives of he Holy Fathers as we do with our understanding and utilization of textbook business principles promoted in leadership magazines and symposia. While both methods provide their own respective value, the former liberates our creative talents towards higher vistas of ministry by nurturing the health of a “new spiritual heart,” the latter can only sustain the “old heart of stone” of our existing talents.
History provides the description of two servants who had the very interesting duty of always accompanying one of the strongest of rulers, King Phillip II, the father of Alexander the Great. One servant was responsible for welcoming the king each morning with: "Phillip, remember that you are but a man." The second servant greeted the king each evening with, "Phillip, have you remembered that you are but a man? While most may not be able to afford two individuals to continually remind us to remain humble, a simple study of the Old and New Testament Scriptures should suffice to instruct us of what our attitude as Church leaders should be. As humans, we are dependent rather than independent beings. These then, are the two indispensable apron strings of the spiritual logic of Godly leadership: (1) God opposes the proud (Proverbs 3:34), but (2) gives grace to he humble (1 Peter 5:5).