Laying down our lives

I've been doing a sermon series on 1 John. I thought it was a good idea when I was planning it. 1 John is in the lectionary, and I wanted to start preaching through some of the smaller books of the Bible that I don't usually preach on. Philippians was a blast. But I'm not sure about 1 John. Preaching professor Anna Carter Florence says you should fall in love with the text you are preaching. I don't know if I've fallen in love with it yet.

This week I'm preaching on 1 John 3:16-24. I try to find one major idea to focus on, and this week it's that Jesus laid down his life for us and we are to do the same for one another. It's Monday, so I'm thinking about images and stories and illustrations. War movies come to mind, like Saving Private Ryan, because soldiers are asked to literally lay down their lives for one another. The Harry Potter books are another example. I just read an article about the friendship and sacrificial love in the Harry Potter books.

But most of us aren't asked to literally lay down our lives for one another. How do we live out this passage? Perhaps the little daily ways that we lay down our lives for each other, like taking out the trash or forgiving someone who has hurt us, are even harder than giving up our lives. At least more of us will experience that.