The following piece was first written for the February 8, 2026 pew sheet at St Augustine’s Anglican Church. I share it here again in the hope that it may continue to encourage and bless.
Last Sunday we reflected on the theme 'Christ Our Foundation.' We learned that no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. Today we will reflect on the theme 'Christ at the Centre.' Next Sunday we will reflect on the theme 'A People Called by God.' These first three Sundays are a time of laying foundations together – spiritually, relationally and missionally. Every season in a church brings both excitement and uncertainty, both fresh energy and genuine questions. These early weeks are an opportunity to remind ourselves: Christ is faithful, Christ is present, and Christ is Lord of his Church. As we begin together, we want to build on the only foundation that lasts – Jesus Christ himself.
This morning, as we reflect on 'Christ at the Centre,' I want to share with you this quote from C. S. Lewis, one of my favourite authors, from his book Mere Christianity:
'I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Christ: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.'
