Chapter 1: Page 8: Line 25

 He had intended to be gone weeks ago, but finds he cannot detach.

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Line 25 Vulgarized:
Reverend Cherrycoke meant to leave but didn't.

Subtext:
The important word in this quote is "detach." Another way to say "he cannot detach" is "he was too attached." He had, in some way, come home again. He had become entangled in both the homeliness of the situation and the nostalgia of the past. Perhaps Pynchon is warning us, through Cherrycoke, of the danger of nostalgia. It's a form of mental quicksand which destroys forward momentum and drags the nostalgic back in time to a place they imagine, through memory, as being better. It's a trap that keeps one from not only realizing the future can be better but actively argues against the future possibility of betterment.
    It's also like reading an intriguing piece of historical fiction with an insane amount of detail and depth. One probably thinks, "I'll finish this book in a few weeks." But soon one finds they cannot detach. They become embroiled in the work. Discovering every secret of the text soon consumes them and before they know it, they've been at the hearthside far longer than they intended, looking back at a work long finished while the works they might possibly write themselves languish.