18/10/2026
Day 5 — Walking in Beauty 2026
Bluff Arts Festival (Day 2)
Our second and final day of the Bluff Arts Festival brought another beautiful bustle of activity to St. Christopher's Mission. Guitar workshops for the kids, painting, beadwork, colorful creations, and a steady stream of visitors stopping by to spend time in fellowship, conversation, and learning.
There was one particularly golden moment that seemed to crystallize so much of what we've been experiencing here.
Inside the original trading post section of the mission, a building that has sheltered people and their stories for over a century, we found ourselves scattered about in different activities. Some were painting, others working with beads, children learning, conversations unfolding, and John Francis O'Mara playing his guitar and singing one of his songs as a backdrop to it all.
Nobody had orchestrated the moment, and yet somehow we were all participating in something profoundly beautiful together.
When the scriptures speak of the Spirit descending like tongues of fire, I wonder if they weren't describing something like what we were experiencing. Different people, different gifts, different ways of expressing ourselves, all somehow finding a common language that transcended the individual activities taking place.
I suspect Federico García Lorca would have recognized it immediately. In fact, I'm fairly certain I heard him holler ¡Duende! from somewhere in the back room!
After the festivities, we rolled up our sleeves once more, taking everything down and restoring the mission to its familiar arrangement in preparation for Sunday worship. Then came dinner and a thorough time of reflection on the week and all that has been unfolding.
JFO eventually unstrapped his guitar and offered us a history and theology lesson, examining the complicated legacy of Christian missionary work, including the many ways it has gone terribly wrong and the remarkable examples of those who found another way.
He spoke of St. Brigid in Ireland and Fr. Baxter Liebler, who founded St. Christopher's Mission here in Navajoland, and whose own understanding of mission was transformed through his relationships with the Diné people.
One of John's more provocative observations concerned what modern Christianity commonly calls the "Great Commission." He reminded us that those familiar words are not actually part of the biblical text itself, but rather an editorial heading that has become so deeply embedded in Christian thinking that we sometimes forget to question its implications.
More important, he suggested, is what he heard his good ole college professor, Doc Cobb, refer to as the "Great Omission." Jesus instructed his followers to go into the world, but left remarkably open the question of HOW they were to carry out that calling.
We explored the Greek language behind Jesus' instruction, considering how the familiar command to "go" can also be understood as "as you go" or "along the way." A rather different invitation than packing your bags, moving to Bangladesh, telling everyone what you believe they need to know, and then moving on.
What if mission work was less about bringing God somewhere and more about discovering the Spirit already at work among the people we encounter?
And what if that Great Omission was not an oversight at all, but an invitation to participate creatively in the ongoing work of the Spirit?
John Francis O'Mara closed by expressing his hope that we might recognize some of the richness of the history and theology we have been living out together, perhaps without even realizing just how deeply these experiences connect with the very heart of the Gospel.
I couldn't help but think back to that moment in the trading post, the children, the artists, the music, the conversations, and the Spirit moving among us without anyone needing to explain what was happening.
Perhaps that's what walking in beauty looks like when we do it together.
Bluff Arts Festival:
https://bluffartsfestival.org
John Francis O'Mara:
https://johnfrancisomara.com
