The good ship Ireland has veered away from the convoy of nations and headed out into the choppy waters all by herself. She flies a number of flags but for now the most prominent of them is the rainbow colours of the Gay community. The crew seem to be working in pairs not couples as in former times and there appears to be complete unanimity amongst those charting the course that the direction taken is the right one.

“Other ships will follow our lead” they say.

Some indeed have already set their course in our direction and only lost a few conscience-stricken crew members overboard. They were the religious ones who had only an old manual to guide them. How could they expect to cope with modern methods of sailing? They would never get close enough to the wind!

A queue had formed on board. They were paired up in their brightest and best clothes. It was their wedding day. But not only that! The ships charter had been altered and there would be a marriage certificate for everyone to mark the occasion. ‘Equality trumps difference’ was the new motto, so let the party begin!

Some rocks lay ahead but they were on the far horizon. There was a new dawn breaking, although a few thought it might be the twilight!

Whatever, no need to change course, there would be plenty of time for that later on.

These were the same rocks that St Paul showed Felix. He called them “righteousness, self-control and the coming judgement” (Acts Chapter 24 verse 25). Felix couldn’t navigate his way around them any more than any of us can. They lie on our pathway. They reveal our need of a relationship to Jesus so that (“in him we live and move and have our being” as St Paul quoted) we are eternally secure.

The picture of the Christian life in Christ is further fleshed out in Ephesians (where Christ is seen as the groom Chapter 5 verse 25/32) by the illustration of the Church as Christ’s bride won, not by referendum, but by the blood of the cross (Chapter 1 verse 7).

There will, by God’s grace, be same-sex couples in heaven alongside opposite-sex ones all of whom are guilty of immorality. But none will be there who have not repented, drawn from their sins by the love of Jesus, to join him as his bride in that glorious marriage feast of the Lamb of which our weddings are but a poor reflection.