Lindisfarne Castle is located on a tiny island off the northeast coast of England. By tiny, I mean 3.5 miles long and 1 mile wide. That’s about 1000 acres. The same size as actor/director/celebrity Tyler Perry’s mansion estate in Georgia. However, with respect to Tyler Perry, Lindisfarne has a critically important place in the history of the world. Okay. Let me be fair. Lindisfarne Castle has been around 1400 years. Tyler Perry has been around maybe 40 years. He has some catching up to do!
In the year 635, the Northumbrian king, Oswald (reigned 634–42), summoned an Irish monk named Aidan to be bishop of his kingdom. Oswald granted Aidan and his companions the small tidal island of Lindisfarne on which to found a monastery. This location was essentially in the political heart of the kingdom, giving Christianity great missionary access to the vast northeast territory of England. Some 40 years later, a monk names Cuthbert arrived at the monastery. Cuthbert eventually became Prior of the area and instituted changes to religious practices. At the time, Christianity in England was split between two sets of practices (how very modern of them). First, there were the practices established by St. Patrick and the early Irish believers. Second, there were practices that the church at Rome had put into place.
Explaining the complexities of these various differences would require a textbook. However, I can give a simple example. The earlier practices and the Roman practices had established different dates for celebrating Easter. This meant there were also different dates for Lent. Imagine if you were still fasting during Lent but your neighbors were feasting after celebrating the Resurrection. Imagine a family where Mom was fasting and Dad was ready to eat! Dad is probably always ready to eat, but that’s beside the point. In any case, when Cuthbert became Prior, he chose to standardize religious practices. In doing so, he chose the Roman practices over the earlier version. This did not go over well with many.
Although Cuthbert was able to effectively get the kingdom to make the switch, he was on the receiving end of much negativity from those who opposed the change. Eventually, he simply retired to an even tinier island to be a hermit. Apparently, you don’t need social media to harass a person to despair. In any case, Cuthbert didn’t escape for long. The king simply promoted him to Bishop and forced him back into the world.
I think this happens a lot in modern day ministry. People are called to accomplish something for God’s kingdom. They work hard at it, succeeding in spite of the difficulties and resistance. But often those people are overcome by the battle. They step back from God’s work because they’re exhausted or they’re overcome by resistance. But God doesn’t let anyone sit on the sidelines for long. It reminds me of the story of Elijah. After proving God’s supremacy over Baal, Elijah is hounded by Jezebel so badly he finally runs off into a self-imposed exile. But God doesn’t leave him there for long. God lets him rest then gives him strength and encouragement to continue his ministry, which included training his successor.