John,

Methinks you are either diminishing or perhaps even ignoring the fundamental purpose of the Lord's Supper, which is similar to the purpose of the Passover of the O.T., which was a commemoration of the deliverance from Egypt. In the institution of this Supper, the Lord Christ said:


Matthew 26:26-28 (WEB) As they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks for it, and broke it. He gave to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, "All of you drink it, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.


Paul is obviously expounding upon these very words in 1Cor 11:29. The fundamental purpose/meaning of the Lord's Supper was first and foremost to proclaim the atoning work of Christ; "proclaiming the Lord's death" from which comes salvation, i.e., remission of sins, reconciliation with God, justification, adoption, sanctification and final glorification. In this Supper the individual is professing his/her need of that great redemption provided by Christ, the satisfaction it provided both unto God and to the soul that apprehends it by faith and the continuing provision it avails through the indwelling Spirit until the Lord returns.

I think Charles Hodge sums it up nicely and whose interpretation of the text is to be preferred:

Quote
26. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.
What Paul had received of the Lord is recorded in the preceding verses. Here and in what follows we have his own inferences from the account which the Lord had given him. The first of those inferences is, that the Lord’s supper is, and was designed to be, a proclamation of the death of Christ to continue until his second advent. Those who come to it, therefore, should come, not to satisfy hunger, nor for the gratification of social feelings, but for the definite purpose of bearing their testimony to the great fact of redemption, and to contribute their portion of influence to the preservation and propagation of the knowledge of that fact. For indicates the connection with what precedes. ‘It is a commemoration of his death, for it is in its very nature a proclamation of that great fact.’ And it was not a temporary institution, but one designed to continue until the consummation. As the Passover was a perpetual commemoration of the deliverance out of Egypt, and a prediction of the coming and death of the Lamb of God, who was to bear the sins of the world; so the Lord’s supper is at once the commemoration of the death of Christ and a pledge of his coming the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hodge, Charles I & II Corinthians Banner of Truth, pp. 229, 30)
In His grace,


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simul iustus et peccator

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