A Meditation by the Rev. Peter Munson, Interim Rector

“The Lord shall watch over your going out and your coming in,

           from this time forth for evermore.” (Psalm 121:8)

How Are You With Goodbyes?

After serving a church in Westminster for nine years and a church in Boulder for 17-1/2 years, I have moved to the other end of the spectrum since 2020, serving churches in Aspen, Park City, Estes Park, and now Breckenridge in just over 4-1/2 years. Four churches in just over four years - that means the goodbyes have come much more frequently. It seems to fit with being in my 60s, also. I attend more funerals that I used to, and part of what happens at a funeral is that we say goodbye to our friend, our loved one.

How are you with goodbyes?

I have met a number of people over the years who have said some version of this: “Peter, I don’t like goodbyes. I’m just going to say “See you later” and hope that we run into each other again. Goodbyes are hard. I’m not going to say goodbye.”

One thing that has helped me and that I have said to the last few parishes that I’ve served is, “Goodbye is a contraction. It is a contraction for ‘God be with you.’”

We forget this, I think. The word has become so familiar as a contraction… so frequently used… that we forget what it means. We forget that when we say goodbye to someone, we are saying “God be with you.” We are offering a blessing to that other person. We are uttering a prayer. We are saying, “May the God we both know and love and worship be with you and and guide you and bless you and watch over you!”

The Psalmist names the truth of God’s faithfulness at the end of what we call Psalm 121. “The Lord shall watch over your going out and your coming in, from this time forth for evermore.”

I am going to miss you all. You have been so gracious to me, and being with you has been an important part of my healing journey. Thank you! And… what a blessing is has been to live in Summit County for the past 14 months. You all have shared with me how grateful you are to be part of this faith community and to live in this beautiful place. It is really something to be able to leave the rectory and be walking or running alongside of Lake Dillon in a few minutes… or biking to Copper Mountain… or hiking on a trail, wondering if I’m going to run into a moose around the next bend (or even in the middle of Breckenridge!).

Thanks for all the ways you are involved in serving the people of Summit County and Lake County, and for the people you serve in places as far away as South Dakota or Honduras. I believe that the key to the abundant life is found in tending to our relationships and in learning how to love - learning how to love God with everything we’ve got and learning how to allow God to love us, and learning how to love others and allowing others to love us. As we do this, we come to know that all of us are connected… all of us are related… all of us are one in God/Christ/Spirit.

I trust that our paths will cross again - perhaps at St. John’s, perhaps on a mission trip, perhaps at some Diocesan-wide event, perhaps on a trail or at a nordic center near you! And if our paths do not cross in one of those places, then they will - by and by - in the next realm, with our Lord and with all those who have gone before us in the faith.

I am excited for your future with The Rev. Beth Blunt. Having only met her on one recent Zoom call, it seems to me that she is going to be a great fit with you all. To borrow from a book title, I think to myself, “Oh, the places that you will go together!” I am smiling right now as I write this. I am excited to see where the Lord will lead all of you.

In the meantime, goodbye to all of you.

God be with you!