Lent’s Call: Galatians, Selma, and Justice

Galatians 3:28 becomes the lens for a Lenten challenge that refuses easy sentiment and insists on moral clarity. Galatians 3:28 proclaims unity in Christ—no Jew or Greek, no slave or free—but history and present realities show that belief without action leaves that promise hollow. Jimmy Lee Jackson’s life and death anchor this examination: a devoted churchgoer who tried for years to register to vote, who attended civil-rights meetings, and who, during a 1965 march in Marion, Alabama, ran into Mac’s Café to protect his family while state troopers attacked the marchers. State trooper James Bonard Fowler shot Jackson twice; Jackson survived for days, spoke of freedom and faith, and then died after a second surgery that his attending black doctor believed involved an overdose of anesthesia. Martin Luther King Jr. called Jackson a “murdered hero,” and leaders later used his death as the catalyst for the Selma-to-Montgomery march.

Officials often followed laws in letter while upholding systems that disenfranchised Black citizens: voter-registration offices that opened only days a month, mass-meeting bans, destroyed press equipment, and prosecutions that targeted organizers rather than those who used lethal force. Fowler avoided indictment for decades, later pled to manslaughter, served a short sentence, and died free—an outcome that exposes the long through line from 1965 to contemporary cases in which unarmed Black people die at the hands of law enforcement and accountability rarely follows.

Lent receives this history not as detached study but as a summons to repentance and reorientation. The community will fast not merely from snacks but from the comforting myth of inevitable national moral progress. A weekly return to Galatians 3:28 will ask what it looks like to live that unity in public life now: to give up self-justifying stories, to seek concrete justice, and to let hunger for Eucharistic grace become a real, transformative ache. Communion will pause to cultivate that hunger, with the aim that Easter’s sacrament lands with renewed meaning.

Practical steps and communal supports accompany the call: a food pantry shifting from soup to hot chocolate and cookies, a civil-rights attorney visiting to connect history to ongoing work, and a Lenten sequence that includes reflections on James W.C. Pennington. The invitation remains direct: face uncomfortable truths, repent where stories deceive, and move toward practices that embody the equality Christ promises.

Key Takeaways

• 1. 181NY5SsrE&t=388s'>[06:28]
  History shapes present racial injustice
  Events from 1965—voter suppression, policing violence, destroyed press—connect directly to modern patterns of unequal force and accountability. Understanding that continuity prevents complacent narratives of “progress completed” and invites sustained resistance against structural privileges that persist. History becomes a moral teacher: it names patterns, locates responsibility, and points to remedies that require policy change and communal repentance. Study the through line to decide faithful action.
  
  Fast from American progress myth
  The nation’s comforting story of steady moral advance can blind conscience and stall repentance when injustices reappear. Choosing a Lenten fast from that mythology opens eyes to persistent inequalities and creates spiritual space for honest assessment and structural repair. True repentance begins by abandoning prideful narratives and learning humility about communal complicity. Let the fast produce public repentance and concrete justice.
  
  Hunger opens to God’s grace
  Intentionally delaying familiar ritual rhythms—pausing weekly communion—cultivates a real hunger that clarifies what the sacrament accomplishes. When lack intensifies longing, Eucharistic grace stops feeling routine and becomes a decisive encounter that reorients behavior and commitment. Spiritual hunger should lead to renewed sacramental receptivity that fuels justice-seeking practice. Allow absence to sharpen devotion and action. [06:28]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [03:07] - Opening remarks and weather
• [05:25] - Centering prayer and breath
• [06:52] - Invocation and thanksgiving
• [12:57] - Reading Galatians 3:28
• [13:11] - Jimmy Lee Jackson: background
• [17:25] - Marion rally and police attack
• [19:05] - Shooting, hospital, and death
• [21:58] - MLK’s eulogy and meaning
• [24:38] - Selma march catalyst and context
• [29:53] - Lent’s call to repentance
• [35:25] - Communion pause and hunger
• [36:51] - Prayerful reflection time
• [38:09] - Using Jimmy Lee Jackson as anchor
• [48:14] - Community announcements and pantry plan
• [53:00] - Lenten charge and benediction

1. What specific groups does Paul say are made "one" in Christ Jesus in Galatians 3:28?
2. The sermon describes a world where belief in this unity "doesn't match action." [24:59] What were some of the specific, legal ways Black citizens like Jimmy Lee Jackson were prevented from experiencing the freedom this verse proclaims?
3. What was the ultimate legal outcome for the state trooper who shot Jimmy Lee Jackson, and how does this contrast with the promise of Galatians 3:28? [27:57]
4. The sermon suggests that sometimes taking communion can become "rote." [35:58] What specific practice is being changed during Lent to help people feel a "real hunger" for it?

1. How can a scripture that proclaims the end of divisions like "slave or free" be heard and lived so differently by people in the same town, as seen in the story of Jimmy Lee Jackson and the state trooper? [14:23]
2. The sermon claims that "we are closer as a nation in terms of our ethics to the night that Jimmy Lee Jackson was shot... than we are to Paul's vision of our life in Christ." [30:34] What evidence is given to support this challenging idea?
3. What is the purpose of "fasting from the belief that this country is materially different" from 1965? [30:14] How could giving up this "myth of American progress" actually help someone move closer to God?
4. If the unity in Christ described in Galatians 3:28 is a spiritual reality, what does it look like for that reality to be acted upon and made visible in public life?

1. What is a comforting story you tell yourself about national moral progress or your own personal goodness that might need to be examined or "fasted" from this Lent? [30:14]
2. The breath in your lungs is described as God's gift, obliging "moral action toward neighbors who suffer under systems that deny full humanity." [06:28] What is one tangible way you can use your God-given life and breath this week to serve a neighbor in need?
3. Where do you see a "through line" connecting the historical events of 1965 to patterns in our current society? [28:55] How does recognizing this continuity change your perspective or call you to action?
4. The sermon invites us to let a hunger for grace become a "real, transformative ache." [36:37] What would it look like for you to intentionally create space to feel that hunger for God's grace this week, rather than filling it with something else?
5. How can supporting concrete justice efforts, like learning from a civil rights attorney about ongoing work, [37:35] be a way of living out the belief that "all are one in Christ Jesus"?
6. The story of Jimmy Lee Jackson shows that attending church and believing scripture is not enough without action. [16:08] In your own life, where is there a gap between what you believe on Sunday and how you act the rest of the week?
7. What is one "uncomfortable truth" you feel summoned to face, and what is a first step you can take in moving toward repentance or reorientation? [38:26]