Why You Should Take a Nap

Eschatology, not religion, and the inadequacy of a day off

Christianity is not a religion; it’s an eschatology. I think I first heard that from N.T. Wright lots and lots of years ago, but I can’t be sure. Regardless, it’s rung in my ears ever since, and I’ve preached accordingly.

For those of you who are not familiar with the word “eschatology,” it’s a theological term to refer to the study and beliefs about the End. Christians believe we are living a story that God is telling, and that for a story to be a story, it must have an ending. Christians confess that Christ has died, that Christ is risen, and that Christ will come again. We believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. We’re convinced that evil will cease, that every tear will be wiped from every eye, and that we will be genuinely and permanently happy—when the End comes.

The Bible uses all sorts of images and metaphors to describe the End Christians look for. One that the author of Hebrews uses, and that I preached on this last Sunday, is an End of infinite rest.

Photo by Kenny Orr on Unsplash

Hebrews 3-4 knits together the stories of Eden, Moses, Joshua, and the Psalms to describe the life of the world to come as an era of permanent sabbath. Eden was the garden of rest, and exile from it meant the curse of hard work. Moses led the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, which was the land of slavery, of unending labor, of fatigue and exhaustion. The trans-Jordan Promised Land, which Joshua led the emancipated people into, was sold as a place where they could lay their heads down in peace.

The author of Hebrews is convinced that all of these things were written down for our instruction, and in that sense were all shadows of what was still to come (and what is still to come for us). As Hebrews says, “there remains a rest for God’s people” (Heb 4:9). This final rest is God’s rest. That is, we get to partake of and participate in the Great Nap that God takes on the seventh day after he creates the heavens and the earth. God’s still creating, so even his rest is yet to come.

So, Hebrews urges us even now: “let us labor to enter that rest” (Heb 4:11). Note that it says we must labor to enter that rest. This is God’s story. He labored then rested. So shall we.

Christianity is not a religion. Religion would be a conservative throwback to what’s already been, a mere remembrance of God’s rest by taking a day off in an endless cycle of working just short of burnout only so we can once again get back to work.

However, Christianity is an eschatology, which means taking a day off, sneaking a nap, sleeping in, and saving up for an extended vacation is an anticipation of what is yet to come. To be Christian is to be dissatisfied with every vacation, to insist that no nap was long enough, and that you’re always tired. Because you are always tired. We’re dissatisfied because we look for the Ultimate Sabbath, the Final Rest.

So, pastorally, I invite you like I invite the congregants of Resurrection Assembly of God to take a day off. But don’t do it just because God did it; do it because God will do it.

Rest in peace,