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Good Morning It would be a brave person who would try to tell a joke on this programme – even if it is National Joke Day. We can probably all remember a time when we’ve tried to be funny and failed, causing embarrassment to others – and even more to ourselves. The internet age has led to the spread of jokes, puns and cartoons about religion - an angel has a bad-halo day; Moses looks at his smart phone and says, ‘Arriving in 40 years. That can’t be right’. Of course there’s sometimes a thin line between poking fun and causing deep offence. And jokes can be insensitive and also intentionally cruel. Children who have been bullied know that they can hurt and exclude. Such jokes usually say more about the weakness of the joker than the object of the joke. The kind of jokes that lift us up are ones that help us get through the difficulties of life through laughter, or give us cause to reflect by coming to see ourselves in a different way. My hunch is that the world’s great religious teachers have always used humour to help us see truth more clearly - although often the only evidence we have is second-hand, passed through the memory of others. “It’s more difficult for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God,” said Jesus. His listeners would not have thought of a sewing needle but of a very narrow opening or gate – there was one in Jerusalem – which a loaded camel couldn’t go through without having all its goods removed. The image has more than a touch of the ridiculous about it and could well have led Jesus’ listeners to laugh as they imagined an utterly bored camel looking superciliously ahead while its impatient trader unloaded and loaded the goods from its back. But the image also had an important message about how possessions can imprison us, how we have to let go of our attachment to things before we can truly live. I imagine that anyone rich hearing Jesus’ words may have winced a little as the truth hit home. Humour should always have a positive purpose. As the Book of Ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything, including to laugh. We often forget this in the face of all that is wrong. I certainly do. But, today, I’m going to open myself to laughter and also to what someone’s humour may just be pointing out to me.