This is a table of thanksgiving, joy and forgiveness. Everyone here should be here in a spirit of gladness and overwhelming gratitude.
But suppose you are not? What then? The temptation is to shrink away, to hold back. This is easier when churches celebrate the meal intermittently, but when we have the Supper every week, this becomes more of a challenge.
One way to abuse this Supper is to go the way of morbid introspection. Make this time a time to beat yourself up. Become super-pious, and accuse yourself every chance you get. Become your very own personal Satan, accusing one of the brethren (yourself) day and night before the throne of God. Come here with a grim determination to enjoy none of it, and with an equal determination to give yourself one good kick in every observance of the Supper. I say this to you advisedly, and I say it as a minister of Jesus Christ. Knock it off. You are defiling the Supper with your sin, but it is a sin that you never get around to confessing—your joylessness. Stop it. Put it away.
Another way of corrupting the joy of the Table is more common with young people than it is with the older generation, but it should be repented of wherever it occurs. This is a table of gladness and joy. Looking forward to worship, longing for the house of God, exulting in the opportunity to sing praises to Him—none of this is cool. In response to this we must echo and affirm the title of a recent book—blessed are the uncool.
Come to the table in gladness—don’t saunter. Approach with simplicity of heart, and get your hair out of your eyes. You are not a rock star. Come with childlike humility and God-given grace, and if you find that you cannot do this, perhaps you do not need to look around for some flagrant violation of God’s ten commandments. Perhaps the problem is with the whole persona you are trying to cultivate. Perhaps the problem is that opening your mouth wide to receive God’s blessing is too conspicuous for you. But here it is anyway.