St Wulstan — Obedience, Not Adjustment

Today’s readings place before us a truth that is uncomfortable but necessary:

God asks for obedience, not improvement.

And when obedience is replaced by adjustment,
faith begins to hollow out.

That is why today’s readings fit so well with the witness of
Wulstan of Worcester.

In the first reading, Saul does what looks, at first glance, quite reasonable.

God tells him to destroy everything belonging to Amalek.
Saul does most of what he is told.

But not all.

He spares the best animals.
He keeps the king alive.
He decides for himself what makes sense.

And when Samuel confronts him, Saul insists:

“I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.”

But Samuel replies with one of the sharpest lines in Scripture:

“Obedience is better than sacrifice.”

Saul offers religious reasoning.
Samuel names the truth.

Saul has not obeyed.
He has edited.

And that is the danger.

Half-obedience is not obedience at all.

The Gospel takes the same issue from another angle.

People question Jesus about fasting.

They want Him to fit into existing religious expectations.

Jesus replies: “New wine must be put into fresh skins.”

This is not about novelty.
It is about conversion.

You cannot receive Christ
and keep everything else unchanged.

You cannot pour the Gospel
into a life that refuses to be reshaped.

The old wineskins split
not because they are bad,
but because they are rigid.

This is where St Wulstan becomes very concrete.

He lived at the time of the Norman Conquest,
when England’s Church was under enormous pressure to change.

Many bishops were removed.
Customs were replaced.
Power shifted.

Wulstan was poor, simple, and deeply traditional.

He was not clever by the world’s standards.
But he was obedient.

When others adjusted the faith to survive politically,
Wulstan remained faithful.

So faithful, in fact,
that even the Norman rulers recognised his holiness
and left him in place.

Why?

Because God does not need clever adjustment.
He needs faithfulness.

The temptation Saul faced
and the pressure Jesus answers in the Gospel
have not disappeared.

We still want to:

• obey God — but on our terms
• keep the faith — but without discomfort
• receive Christ — but without conversion

We adjust instead of obeying.
We explain instead of surrendering.

But God does not ask for edited faith.

He asks for trust.

Here is the quiet promise beneath today’s readings.

When we obey — not perfectly,
but honestly — God can work.

Saul’s story ends in loss
because he would not let go of control.

Wulstan’s story ends in fruitfulness
because he did.

New wine needs new skins.
Grace needs space.

That space is obedience.

Today’s readings ask us a simple but searching question:

Are we obeying God — or adjusting Him?

Saul adjusted and lost his kingdom.
Wulstan obeyed and bore fruit.

Christ still offers new wine.

The question is whether we will let Him reshape us
so that His life can be poured in
without loss.