Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil....
Thoughts; Certainly part of the Lenten discipline is to think about what tempts us and to resist that temptation. This is why fasting or giving up something for Lent comes from. For Christians the reality of evil and thus the possibility of our slipping into it by giving into temptation are very real.
Yet for the secular west, this is seen as not a universal reality but only an individual or group reality. In an effort to tolerate everyone, we have become "value neutral." Value neutrality is basically the idea that you do your thing and I'll do mine- and lets not hurt one another. But value neutrality is a value in and of itself. It elevates neutrality and tolerance above any truth that any religion or value system may have. It closes its ears to listen and sits as an arbiter of fairness. It is not "fair" for one religion to have precedent over another therefore all religions are alike. But this in itself is not fair to reality. It basically means that there are no false religions. So anyone can make up anything- I can say my worship of the great pumpkin is as good as your worship of Jesus Christ. The Machiavellian philosophy of lying to get ahead- is seen as just as good as the Christian virtue of honesty at all costs. But the other thing that value-neutrality (or postmodernism) does is that it says "it really doesn't matter." This is the true problem. For it says there is no ultimate meaning- thus no ultimate purpose- thus no ultimate goal- thus no ultimate hope. To say there is no ultimate God- is to say there is no ultimate truth- (or another version is we cannot know God or know truth- this is the same result- pragmatic atheism). Despite all the comforts of life- low unemployment, being among the highest wage earners in the world- there is a sad hopelessness found in our society.
Postmodernism is a reaction to our differences- but it has itself divided us- because it does not value love. Christians are to hold the truth in love and hold it humbly. We are to remember that all people are by their creation worthy of our respect as a life- made in the image of God. We are to remember that all people- even the worst of us- has the opportunity to be redeemed by what Christ did for us on the cross (none of us deserve that). So Christians are to respect post-modernists, and people of all different kind of faiths- and work with them for the good of where we mutually live.
Lead us not into temptation takes on new meaning if we think there is no such thing as ultimate evil or even real temptation. Jesus did not flinch at pointing out the reality of evil in this life. Believers believe in our hope and our goal of honoring and enjoying God.
Postmodernists main temptation is to give up because there is no hope. It is easy to say the goal is unachievable or unknowable therefore we should give up pretending to be good and live by our own feelings. This reflects in the number of people in the secular west who give up on life (suicide) or duck out of life (drug abuse). Or the other temptation is to pretend to have the answer- when even such pretension is just a play. To believe you have the answer- when you do not is a kind of false hope and false pride.
Christians admit there is a way to be lost and hopeless- but we have been rescued from it by God's grace.
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