As we look back over the passage we have been considering, a few reminders are necessary.
This is the Lord’s Table, and it does not belong to you. This means you are not in charge of the invitations and place cards, and have no authority to decline an invitation that has been graciously extended to you. Therefore, do not withdraw from the Table on your own authority. And lest there be any mistake, as a minster of Christ, authorized to do so, I invite every baptized believer here, who has not been lawfully excommunicated, to come to the Table with all humility and gladness.
But this relates to another common problem. We tend to think of the Lord’s Supper as a reward for the good instead of as a remedy for the bad. God gave this Supper to help keep us from sin; we use sin to keep us from the Supper. The cases where someone wants to remain seated at the Table while sinning defiantly is a special case, one to be considered by the elders. We are, all of us, seated here as sinners, and we are, all of us, more sinful than we know. Ask God to reveal your sin to you through the Supper, rather than letting your sin obscure the Supper.
And this leads to the last consideration. The service of worship is where God deals with us, and He does so in all wisdom. When we according to our own lights meditate on how bad we are, this is an effective way to become a great deal worse. But through the sacraments He has established, He deals with us, and our sins, with all wisdom. As we come, invite Him to do so.