Happy Father's Day

Larry Beane, Sr. and Larry Beane II, 1964

Along with Father's Day greetings to my beloved bio-pop and all fathers according to the flesh, I also wish all pastors a blessed day, as Dr. Luther writes in our Large Catechism:

The name spiritual father belongs only to those who govern and guide us by the Word of God. St. Paul boasts that he is a father in 1 Cor 4:15, where he says, "I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel." Since such persons are fathers, they are entitled to honor, even above all others. But they very seldom receive it, for the world's way of honoring them is to harry them out of the country and grudge them as much as a piece of bread. In short, as St. Paul says, they must be "the refuse of the world, and every man's offscouring" (1 Cor 4:13). (LC 1:158-160).