A mohair suit or camel's hair?

Growing up, I listened to a lot of rock and roll. One such song was “Bennie and the Jets.” It was written by Bernie Taupin in 1973 and performed by Elton John.

The lyrics are quite odd:

“Hey kids, shake it loose together. The spotlight’s hitting something. That’s been known to change the weather.

We’ll kill the fatted calf tonight, so stick around. You’re gonna hear electric music. Solid walls of sound.”

“Say, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet? Oh, but they’re so spaced out, B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets.

Oh but they’re weird and they’re wonderful. Oh Bennie she’s really keen. She’s got electric boots, a mohair suit.

You know I read it in a magazine, oh, ho. B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets.”

“Hey kids, plug into the faithless. Maybe they’re blinded. But Bennie makes them ageless. We shall survive, let us take ourselves along. Where we fight our parents out in the streets. To find who’s right and who’s wrong.”

As a kid, I rarely looked at the lyrics of a song and pondered their meaning. All I cared about was if the tune was fun to listen to and had a great beat.

Years later, I discovered that Taupin’s song was intended as absurd satire. It was poking fun at the music industry. The lead singer, Bennie, was actually a futuristic female robot, dressed in crazy, attention-grabbing “electric boots” and a “mohair suit.”

What I found curious was the references to “kill the fatted calf” and “faithless.” No one ever explained these to me, but I see them as indications of teen-age idol worship, which is what most kids tend to do.

The mohair suit is interesting. Mohair is a fabric made from the Angora goat. This reminds me of John the Baptist’s camel’s hair garb.

Unlike the fictional Bennie, John the Baptist’s clothing was only intended to grab one’s attention for a relatively short period of time. His calling was to endorse someone “far greater than himself,” that being Jesus Christ.

John could have been an idol, a “rock star” of his time, who could have fed his ego by collecting groupies. Instead, his purpose was just the opposite – pointing away from himself.

We should pay close attention to John’s witness. He modeled an entirely different form of success: revealing Christ to the world, instead of self-promotion.

Walter is pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church and has served as parish pastor for more than 25 years.