Truth is I'm not entirely sure what to make of this line. On the one hand they have continued with their faith practices in spite of the horrible events of the previous few days. All their hopes have been shattered, yet they can still pause for the Sabbath. On the other hand, their falling back into old faith patterns could be an indication of how unaware they are of the fundamental shift that Jesus' life, death, and resurrection (at this point still unknown the them) have brought about.
The second piece of the reading I noticed seems to connect with the disciples being unaware. When the women encounter two "men in dazzling clothes" at the tomb, the men ask, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?" It is a rather strange thing to ask. The women are not, after all, looking for anyone alive. They are coming to visit a grave. No one expects to find the living there, aside from other cemetery visitors. Now I am probably getting pretty far afield of the passage at this point, but for some reason I immediately thought about the malaise afflicting the mainline church.
A group of pastors in my denomination (with whom I strongly disagree) have formed something call the PC(USA) Fellowship, and they have stated that the Presbyterian Church (USA) is "deathly ill." Their diagnosis is based in what they see as the denomination's abandonment of traditional orthodoxy, with recent changes allowing the ordination of those in same-sex relationships, being a final straw.
I totally reject their notion that straying from traditional orthodoxy has horribly sickened us. But I will give them that quite a few Presbyterian congregations have the feel of a gathering at a cemetery. By that I mean that the people there are coming to pay respects and give honor (in this case to God), but they have very little expectation of actually encountering any sort of living presence in the process. To the question, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?" they might answer, "We're not looking for the living. We're going to church."
If the denomination is suffering from any sort of deathly illness, I would think "going to church" a much more likely diagnosis than lapsed orthodoxy. And while this is conjecture on my part, I suspect that church looks like a cemetery to lots of people not connected to church. They don't necessarily see church as a bad thing, they just don't know why they would want to visit the cemetery every week, especially when they don't know anyone involved in the funeral very well.
And congregations who imagine that they could fill their sanctuaries again if they just had a more dynamic preacher, a snazzier music program, or perhaps even a "contemporary service" with a band and multimedia, are likely to be disappointed to discover that most people aren't all that interested in visiting the cemetery every week. I doesn't matter how slick or entertaining, funerals and cemeteries tend not to draw people over the long haul.
Now don't get me wrong. I am not worried about the death of the Church, or even of my denomination. Certainly there are congregations that will die. That has been happening for nearly two millennia. And if there are more sick congregations right now, I'm inclined to think that mostly a matter those congregations' desire to look back rather than forward. In a time of rapid cultural change, they prefer remembering a lost past to living in the present. They like cemeteries.
Those who are looking for a living Jesus, for God's presence at work in the world, are not likely to be attracted to cemetery churches, no matter who is in the pulpit or who plays in the band. Most people just don't want to spend that much time at the cemetery.
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