The classic children’s book, The Phantom Tollbooth (1961), tells the story of a young boy named Milo. One dull, rainy afternoon Milo receives the anonymous gift of a cardboard fold-and-cut tollbooth. Bored Milo builds the tollbooth and “drives through” it with his toy car.

Immediately Milo disappears from his room and finds himself traveling along a strange road in a new land. But despite this miraculous relocation, as the road continues on and on, and the countryside rolls by and by, Milo begins to grow bored again. He spaces out and begins to be completely oblivious to his surroundings. He doesn’t even notice as his car begins to go slower and slower and then finally coasts to a complete stop. Rousing lightly from his stupor, Milo finally notices there are strange little creatures draped over the hood of his car, snoozing on his head and shoulders, snoring on his dashboard. When the boy demands to know what is going on the sleepy creatures inform him that they are “Lethargians” and tell Milo that he and his vehicle are now firmly stuck in a place known as “The Doldrums.”

Of course literally the “doldrums” is actually an old nautical reference to a “dead zone” — a place where there is no wind to fill up the sails, no strong currents to guide a vessel along. Getting out of the “doldrums” takes a purposeful expenditure of energy, a muscle-powered desire to move forward.

Unfortunately it isn’t just sailing ships or bored little boys on rainy afternoons who can find themselves stranded in the “doldrums.” Whole movements can find themselves stranded in the Doldrums. Whole countries, cultures, and churches can find themselves so mired in spiritless monotony, in the security of sameness and statis, that they fail to notice they are going nowhere and are accomplishing nothing.

On 14 September 2013, Tokyo, Japan erupted with enthusiasm and joy at the news that their city had been chosen as the site for the 2020 Olympic games. Still digging out and rebuilding from the devastating effects of the 2011 tsunami that struck the northern coast of Japan, the citizens of Tokyo, the largest city in the world, enthusiastically endorsed taking on this huge new project. The focus of that nation is now fixed on an event seven years in the future. They are going after it full throttle.

In 2017, just over four years from today, there will occur another once-in-a-life-time celebration. On the eve of All Saint's Day, 31 October 1517, a headstrong, spirited monk named Martin Luther nailed the ninety‑five theses, which he had composed in Latin, on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg, and mailed copies to his superiors. This act of “posting” was the catalyst for a religious, cultural, and ultimately political upheaval that became known as “The Reformation.”

Like the tsunami that hit a beleaguered Japan, this anniversary commemorating five hundred years of one of the greatest religious movements in history has become the focus for a renewed enthusiasm and spiritual surge among Protestant churches.

Oh, wait. On second thought, we’ve completely forgotten about it!

How many Protestant churches are planning . . . anything? How many Protestant churches are even aware that this milestone is approaching? How many people even admit to the identity of “Protestant” anymore, much less understand what that label once meant?

How many of us claim a Christian identity but in actuality have slowed to a stuporous halt in our spiritual journey, and instead of traveling an ever unfolding journey of faith have become stuck and stranded in some spiritual version of “The Doldrums.” We all need to look over our shoulders, inspect our desk-tops and lap-tops, check our kitchen counters and our beating hearts for any lounging “Lethargians,” those signs of a comatose Christianity that are keeping us from a forward moving faithfulness.

“Protestantism” was birthed as a “protest” movement. The first “Protestants” were protesting against some of the medieval practices of the Catholic church, the most notorious of which was “indulgences.” The first generations of Protestants championed grace over works, the individual over the communal, the “priesthood of all believers” and the redemptive mission of Christ.

The first aim of Protestant reformers was to assure the faithful that there was no theological need for a “middleman.” Paying for “indulgences,” praying to saints and Mary, the intercessory prayers of priests and popes, all were unnecessary, because “Christ crucified” had once-for-all paid the price of sin for all, regardless of status, social standing, or sex. A heartfelt confession of faith in Christ, and receiving the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, was all the “intermediary” required for a new and redeemed life.

In 1517 Protestantism was, then, a “pro-test” — a protest against the powers that kept the free gift of Christ at human arm’s-length from divine power. The salvation Christ offered was not something to be brokered by special groups with special powers. It was a gift offered to all who confessed faith. It was the reclamation and reiteration of Jesus’ own mission and message.

Jesus’ parables, his public messages, delivered to a larger audience but always arrow-aimed at his disciples, reveled in paradox and reversed expectations. The first were to be last. All sorts of outcasts, sinners and lepers, tax collectors and woman of questionable status, Samaritans and even Gentiles, all were invited to sit at Table. His message was not a “Pro-test” but a “pro-Testament” message, a welcome to all who would embrace the “new” Testament of salvation and redemption that he was bringing.

In the gospel text read for All Saints Day, 01 November (Luke 6:10-31), Jesus announces a “great reversal” in the coming kingdom. The poor will be blessed, for they will inherit the kingdom of God. The hungry will be filled. Those who now mourn will find laughter. Those who are kicked to the curb and thrown under the bus by this world will find favor in the world to come.

But there is a down side. On the down side Jesus notes that those who coast through this world, those who are “fat” (well off) and happy (“clueless”) should anticipate a reversal of their fortunes in heaven. The problem for these folks is not their status. It is their STASIS. Content with what they have and where they are, they happily drift along in a void without spirit, a human doldrums devoid of connection and compassion.

The church today is full of protest “Protestants” people still focused on protesting against things instead of pro-Testament Protestants a positive, propelling conviction that is eternally looking forward to the next new in-breaking of the Kingdom of God. Protestantism started as a “kick back” movement, but it can only continue as a “kick start” movement, forever looking to the Spirit to keep it heading down new roads and open to new expressions of the Spirit.

Jesus was the original “Yes-man.” When those deemed the worst, the witless, and the worthless came to Jesus, he always said “Yes.”

Yes, there is forgiveness.

Yes, there is healing.

Yes, you were made in God’s image.

Yes, God loves you.

Yes, you can have life eternal.

No wonder Paul calls Jesus “God’s eternal Yes!”

But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us — by me and Silas and Timothy — was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 1:18ff)

A favorite story about Thomas Jefferson concerns the time the President and several friends were riding cross-country on horseback. They came to a swollen river that they had to ford. Standing at the water’s edge was a man traveling on foot. After several men in the President’s party had crossed the river, the travelers asked President Jefferson to help him across. Jefferson took the man on his horse and carried him to the other side. Whereupon, one of the President’s men asked the traveler, “Why did you select the President to ask for this favor?” The traveler replied, “I didn’t realize he was the President. I just know that in some faces is written the answer, ‘No!’ and in others the answer ‘Yes!’ His was a ‘Yes!’ face.”

Jesus had a “Yes” face.

Rabbinical legend tells of a student who went the second most famous rabbi in Jerusalem with a problem. He said that the 613 laws of the Torah were too confusing for him. “Can’t you give me a summary of the law in the time that I can stand upon one foot?” The rabbi picked up a cane and started hitting the young man with it, rebuking him for his impertinence and chasing him out of his presence. That rabbi had spent his entire life studying and interpreting these hundreds of laws and it was an insult to be asked to simplify them into a brief summation.

The young man then visited the most famous rabbi in Jerusalem, and asked him the same question. Rabbi Hillel said, “Stand on one foot.” The young scholar obeyed, and as he stood on one foot Rabbi Hillel said: “Do NOT do to anyone else what you would NOT have done to yourself. This is the summary of the law.”

Jesus, preaching at almost the same time as Hillel, agreed. But Jesus was God’s “Yes!” man. Jesus preferred to put things in positive terms, giving the faithful reasons for action instead of reactions. Thus in the text offered this week for “All Saints Day,” for a day in which the church considers the past and present and future gifts of all the “saints,” we read Jesus’ positive spin on this encapsulation of the Law — “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:31)

Do not just “Protest,” but “Pro-Testament.”

Never stop struggling against what is wrong. But never stop proclaiming what is right.