The Rev. Dr. Diane Givens Moffett offers up a homily on gun violence prevention

The president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency spoke via Zoom during Wednesday’s Chapel service

LOUISVILLE — The Rev. Dr. Diane Givens Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, offers us this homily she delivered via Zoom Wednesday as part of the PMA’s Chapel Service. Click on the link above to view Moffett’s 15-minute homily.

Moffett’s homily came two days after the mass shooting at Old National Bank two blocks from the Presbyterian Center. Five people were killed and eight others were wounded by a bank employee, who was killed by police. On Wednesday evening, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), spoke at the Muhammad Ali Center as part of a citywide vigil.

The Rev. Dr. Diane Givens Moffett is president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency. (Photo by Rich Copley)

Moffett based her homily on Psalm 13, which opens with the cry of, “How long, O Lord,” as well as Mark 9:14-29, the account of Jesus healing a boy with a spirit. At the end of Mark’s story, the disciples ask Jesus, “Why could we not cast it out?” Jesus replies, “This kind can only come out through prayer.” Moffett returns to both themes throughout her homily.

It’s our job as people of faith, Moffett says at the conclusion, “to refuse to be thrown to the ground and robbed of our voice, to drive out that spirit that will make us lean into doubt more than faith — and to know that God is with us through it all, pointing us even in this season of Easter to the sure and certain power of God’s resurrection. How long? That question is the question we will live with. Amen.”