Luke 3:7-9
He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
The first part of repentance is contrition. So the question looms: Are we even sorry for our sins? Do we even see the devastation, pain, grief, or loss in the wake of our sin? When John greets the crowds who are coming to be baptized by him by calling them a brood of vipers, don’t we naturally think that he is referring to other people, very unlike ourselves?
In fact we religious people are very much like those who came to John in those days. We would very easily claim to be sons and daughters of faith. We’re Lutherans! We’re sincere Christians! We take this God-thing seriously! And in that claim we show how far from the mark we are (and sin means “missing the mark”).
John explains what it means to repent and bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance later in these verses: Be content with your pay(!), don’t be envious, don’t take advantage of others. Real life stuff there! It is a good thing to confess your sins in worship, to hear the Good News of forgiveness and to receive the Lord’s Supper – Jesus’ body and blood, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”
The complete calling of God goes beyond the worship service. This should never be thought of as undercutting the importance of worship. But getting real with our repentance has to do with how we go from church as much as it has to do with confessing your sins in any arena – Jordan River or First Church.
David Bahn - Reflections 
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